Lotte Mart suppliers requesting payment as chain closes most outlets: report

Lotte Mart, retaill business arm of South Korea’s Lotte Group, has reportedly been pressed forr payment by suppliers at a gathering in its Beijingheadquardes pread ters, amid a wid retail chain storees in China Many shelves at Lotte Mart are nearstic ly empty, domesnewspaper Securirted ties Daily report Wednesday. It said that there a are almost no prepared items in the sto “I’m not sur for Lotte Mart business with edible oil and took part in the curities Daily.

A resident in the Jiuxianqiao area of Beijing, where Lotte Mart has a store, told the Securities Daily that the store’s business has suffered a lot with few consumers since the company approved a land swap deal with the South Korean military to install the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system at the end of February.

It added that some consumers complained of bad service at Lotte Mart and the undesirable quality of its fresh products.

Lotte Mart’s operations in China were further hampered when 120 members of the Beijing Supermarket Supply Enterprise Association ( BSSEA) convened in early March to safeguard their interests regarding Lotte Mart, saying that the store makes a large profit margin on their products, according to Beijing Business Today.

“Nearly half of the members of the BSSEA have been involved in the initiative, and we’ve advised all of them to stop supplying products to Lotte and demand immediate payment,” Yao Wenhua, the president of the BSSEA, told Beijing Business Today.

Lotte Group owns 99 stores in China, out of which 87 stores have been closed, representing more than 90 percent of its total. Of the closed stores, 20 were shut by Lotte itself and the rest were ordered to close for fire control issues, the Securities Daily noted.

Lotte Group is expected to post a monthly loss of 116 billion won ($ 104 million) after closing the stores, according to media reports.