Home Plus suffers from dwindling supplies, customers

SEOUL, June 22 (UPI) -- South Korea's Home Plus is grappling with shrinking inventories and declining customers as the troubled discount chain has suffered from an existential crisis over the past year.

Its spacious Sindorim store in western Seoul was noticeably quiet Friday, with only a handful of customers. Shelves that would normally be stocked with fresh food and meat were instead filled with food containers.

"I have been using this store for a long time because I live nearby," Kim Mi-jin, a homemaker in her 40s, told UPI. "But I've been visiting less often lately because the range of products on display has visibly shrunk in recent months."

Home Plus said that supplies to its stores have fallen by roughly half as the retailer has been going through a court-led rehabilitation program for longer than a year since March 2025.

MBK Partners, one of Asia's leading private equity firms, channeled about $5 billion in 2015 to acquire Home Plus. Yet, the retailer has faced mounting financial pressure in recent years amid the rapid rise of e-commerce and lingering post-pandemic challenges.

To facilitate a sale of the company, MBK gave up its rights to $1.6 billion worth of common equity in Home Plus last year, but no deal materialized.

Home Plus has continued to shutter stores. The number of hyperstores once exceeded 140 in the mid-2010s nationwide, but the company now operates only 67 outlets.

Home Plus claims that its sales could recover if a new owner injects fresh capital to stabilize its supply chain and restore normal operations.

Concerned that the retailer could ultimately be forced to shut, however, its labor union has urged United Asset Management, or UAMCO, a quasi-public restructuring specialist, to step in.

"The final deadline of our sale is Sept. 3 this year. If we cannot find a solution before then, we will have no choice but to close," Home Plus union Secretary General Choi Cheol-han said in a phone interview.

"We ask UAMCO to take a leading role in normalizing Home Plus and facilitating its sale," he added.

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This story was originally published June 22, 2026 at 9:45 AM.