Which Business Groups Own the Brands You Pass on a Seoul Street

Not every big Korean brand is a chaebol brand, and the convenience-store chain with the most outlets is not one. CU, which had more outlets than any other convenience-store chain at the end of 2024, is run by BGF Retail, whose group ranks 77th on the regulator's list, far below Lotte, GS or Shinsegae.

The word chaebol itself does not appear in the regulator's release. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) designates 기업집단, business groups, by asset size, and publishes each group's full list of affiliated companies every year. This guide uses that 2026 list, the KFTC's franchise registry and the companies' own sites to show which group stands behind each brand you are likely to pass.

What the KFTC designation means

The KFTC's list is the official record of which companies belong to which group. Its release of 29 April 2026 designates 102 business groups with total assets of 5 trillion won or more as 공시대상기업집단, groups subject to disclosure, covering 3,538 affiliated companies, effective 1 May 2026.

The list grew this year. The KFTC says there were 92 groups with 3,301 affiliates in 2025, and names 11 new groups for 2026, including 오리온 (Orion), which it credits to overseas confectionery sales, and 한국콜마, which it credits to its cosmetics and pharmaceutical businesses, both linked by the KFTC to the global popularity of Korean food and beauty.

The full list of newcomers shows how far beyond retail the designation reaches. The KFTC names 라인, 한국교직원공제회, 웅진, 쉴더스, 대명화학, 토스, 한국콜마, 희성, 오리온, QCP그룹 and 일진글로벌 as new for 2026, while 영원 dropped out after its assets fell below 5 trillion won.

A tighter tier sits on top. Forty-seven groups with assets of 12 trillion won or more, 0.5% of the latest nominal GDP, are also 상호출자제한기업집단, groups barred from cross-shareholding; the release lists bans on cross-shareholding and circular shareholding and limits on debt guarantees among the extra rules.

Each group has a 동일인, the person or company treated as controlling it. The KFTC's designation table names, for example, 신동빈 for Lotte, 이명희 for Shinsegae, 이재현 for CJ, 허창수 for GS and 정지선 for Hyundai Department Store.

Designation carries obligations. Affiliates of every designated group must make public disclosures and are covered by the ban on giving unfair benefits to related persons in Article 47 of the Fair Trade Act, and the KFTC says it will publish analyses of shareholdings, debt guarantees, internal transactions and governance through the rest of 2026.

The controlling person is not always obvious, and the KFTC checks. For 2026 it changed the controlling person of the Coupang group from the company to 김범석, saying site checks found that his brother held a senior role and influenced major business decisions, which broke the conditions for naming a company instead of a person.

The ranking is by assets, not by how many shops a group runs. The top five for 2026 are Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, LG and Hanwha, which rose from seventh; Lotte slipped from fifth to sixth.

The table below lists the groups behind the street brands in this guide, with their 2026 rank, number of affiliates and the affiliate that runs each brand.

Lotte, from department store to 7-Eleven

Lotte puts its own name on many of its businesses. Its corporate business page lists LOTTE Department Store, LOTTE Mart, LOTTE Duty Free, LOTTE Cinema, LOTTE GRS, Korea Seven and LOTTE Hi-Mart among the companies in the "LOTTE Family", and says Lotte has been in Korean retail "since the 1970s".

The burger chain is Lotte's. The KFTC franchise registry lists 롯데지알에스(주), Lotte GRS, as the franchisor of 롯데리아, first registered on 2 August 2008 as fast food, and the 2026 affiliate list places Lotte GRS in the Lotte group.

Lotte GRS runs more than burgers. Its brand page lists 롯데리아 alongside 엔제리너스 (Angel-in-us coffee), 크리스피 크림 도넛 (Krispy Kreme Doughnuts), 스탠브루, 플레:이팅 and 무쿄쿠, and describes Lotteria as Korea's representative burger franchise, operating about 1,600 stores in seven countries.

The group is growing by company count. The KFTC's table gives Lotte 98 affiliates in 2026, up from 92 in 2025, while its asset total edged down, and Hanwha's assets rose past Lotte's to take fifth place.

7-Eleven Korea is also a Lotte business. The franchise registry lists (주)코리아세븐, Korea Seven, as the franchisor of 세븐일레븐, first registered on 26 July 2008 as a convenience store, and the KFTC places Korea Seven in the Lotte group.

The department stores, cinemas and Hi-Mart follow the same pattern. The KFTC affiliate list includes 롯데쇼핑(주), 롯데컬처웍스(주) and 롯데하이마트(주), and Lotte's own business page lists LOTTE Department Store, LOTTE CULTUREWORKS, LOTTE Cinema and LOTTE Hi-Mart as Lotte companies.

Lotte also runs food and drink companies. The affiliate list includes 롯데칠성음료(주) and 롯데웰푸드(주), and Lotte's business page lists LOTTE Chilsung Beverage and LOTTE WELLFOOD among its food and drink companies.

Shinsegae: Emart, emart24 and Starbucks

Shinsegae is the group behind the department stores that carry its name and behind Emart. The KFTC affiliate list includes (주)신세계, (주)이마트 and (주)이마트24, and the franchise registry lists (주)이마트24 as franchisor of 이마트24(emart24), first registered on 10 December 2008.

Starbucks Korea is also a Shinsegae business. The footer of Starbucks Korea's own site names the operator as "주식회사 에스씨케이컴퍼니", SCK Company, and the KFTC's 2026 affiliate list includes (주)에스씨케이컴퍼니 in the Shinsegae group.

Starbucks is also not a franchise. Its company page says Starbucks Korea has run "모든 매장을 직영", every store directly, since its first store at Ewha in 1999, and a search of the KFTC's franchise registry for 스타벅스 returned no franchisor.

The same page still describes the company as "㈜스타벅스커피 코리아", a joint venture set up by Starbucks Coffee International and the Shinsegae group. The page does not explain the difference between that name and the SCK Company name in the footer, and no page read for this guide gives today's shareholding split.

Other Shinsegae affiliates on the KFTC list include (주)신세계푸드, (주)신세계인터내셔날, (주)조선호텔앤리조트 and (주)신세계디에프. The designation table names 이명희 as Shinsegae's controlling person, with 65 affiliates in 2026, up from 59.

CJ, GS, BGF and Hyundai

CJ owns Olive Young, the health-and-beauty chain. The KFTC affiliate list includes 씨제이올리브영(주), CJ Olive Young, in the CJ group, and Olive Young's own history page says it had more than 1,380 stores nationwide as of December 2025, with over 17.51 million members.

Olive Young's own timeline shows the growth. Olive Young's timeline records passing 1,000 stores and opening a Gangnam flagship in 2017, passing 1,350 stores and opening the Olive Young N Seongsu store in 2024, and says its first store was in Sinsa.

The same page reports more than 10 million monthly active users of its services as of December 2025, alongside the membership figure.

Olive Young describes itself as having moved away from the Japanese-style drugstore model focused on medicines and health foods towards a beauty-led health-and-beauty store. The franchise registry lists 씨제이올리브영(주) as franchisor of "Olive Young(올리브영)", first registered on 29 October 2010 as a general retailer, so not every Olive Young is company-run.

CJ's other consumer-facing affiliates include the company that carries the CGV cinema name. The 2026 affiliate list includes 씨제이씨지브이(주), 씨제이푸드빌(주), 씨제이제일제당(주) and 씨제이프레시웨이(주), with 67 affiliates in total and 이재현 named as the controlling person.

GS25 belongs to the GS group, ranked 10th. GS Holdings' subsidiaries page says "GS Retail operates a variety of retail properties, including: GS25, a convenience store serving local communities", along with GS THE FRESH, a fresh-food retail chain, and GS SHOP, and the franchise registry lists (주)지에스리테일 as franchisor of GS25.

GS Holdings also lists Fresh Serve, which it says makes ready-to-eat food supplying GS25 stores in the Seoul and Jeju metropolitan areas and GS supermarkets nationwide, which keeps part of GS25's food supply inside the group.

CU belongs to a much smaller group. The franchise registry lists (주)비지에프리테일, BGF Retail, as franchisor of 씨유(CU), and the KFTC ranks the BGF group 77th of 102 in 2026, with 17 affiliates and 홍석조 as controlling person.

BGF calls CU "Korea's # 1 convenience store" on its English site, and the KFTC's own figures support that by outlet count. At the end of 2024 CU had 18,255 franchise outlets, GS25 17,989, 7-Eleven 12,081 and emart24 5,895, out of 55,927 convenience-store outlets in total.

The sector as a whole grew only slightly. The KFTC counts 55,927 convenience-store franchise outlets at the end of 2024, up 0.4% from 55,711, spread across 43 brands, with average outlet sales of 578 million won.

Openings tell the same story of a close race. The KFTC counts 1,785 new GS25 outlets in 2024, 1,592 new CU outlets, 519 new 7-Eleven outlets and 422 new emart24 outlets; across the sector the opening rate was 8.3% and the closure rate 7.7%.

Sales per store rank differently. The KFTC's table puts GS25 first on average outlet sales at 643.7 million won in 2024, just ahead of CU at 633.8 million won, then 7-Eleven at 511.2 million won and emart24 at 451.5 million won.

BGF's English site says CU has signed master franchise contracts abroad, starting with Mongolia and Malaysia, and its history page records CU's 500th store in Mongolia, so the CU sign also travels.

Hyundai Department Store is its own group, separate from Hyundai Motor. The KFTC ranks 현대백화점 27th, with 24 affiliates including (주)현대백화점, (주)현대그린푸드 and (주)현대홈쇼핑, and names 정지선 as controlling person, while 현대자동차 ranks third with 정의선.

Other groups on the list also have consumer-facing affiliates. The KFTC affiliate list places 한화갤러리아(주), a company carrying the Galleria name, in Hanwha, ranked fifth, and (주)호텔신라 in Samsung; it ranks Amorepacific 64th with 15 affiliates and HYBE 89th with 11.

The three cinema names in this guide split three ways. 씨제이씨지브이(주), carrying the CGV name, is a CJ affiliate; LOTTE Cinema appears on Lotte's own business page; and the KFTC lists 메가박스중앙(주), a company carrying the Megabox name, in the 중앙 group, ranked 73rd.

Department stores and duty-free counters

Department stores are where group names are easiest to spot, because Lotte Department Store, Shinsegae and Hyundai Department Store each carry the group's own name. The KFTC's 2026 affiliate list shows each of the three groups with several retail companies, some carrying duty-free (면세점 or 디에프) names.

Lotte's list includes 롯데쇼핑(주) and two duty-free companies, 롯데디에프리테일(주) and 롯데면세점제주(주), and Lotte's business page lists LOTTE Department Store and LOTTE Duty Free among its retail businesses.

Shinsegae's list includes (주)신세계 and separate companies for regional stores, (주)광주신세계, (주)대전신세계 and (주)인천신세계, plus (주)신세계디에프 and (주)신세계라이브쇼핑.

Hyundai Department Store's 24 affiliates include (주)현대백화점, (주)더현대광주, 한무쇼핑(주) and (주)현대디에프, along with (주)한섬, (주)현대리바트 and (주)지누스.

Duty-free names cross group lines in one case. The KFTC lists 에이치디씨신라면세점(주) as an affiliate of both Samsung and HDC, the group ranked 35th, so a single duty-free company can appear under two groups.

Groups reach well beyond shops. GS's 104 affiliates range from (주)지에스리테일 to companies named for wind farms and expressways, such as (주)영덕제1풍력발전 and 부산동서고속화도로(주), and one company, 롯데지에스화학(주), appears on both the Lotte and GS lists.

BGF is more compact. Its 17 affiliates include (주)비지에프, (주)비지에프리테일, (주)비지에프푸드 and (주)비지에프로지스.

Brands no big group owns

The largest bakery franchise and the largest coffee franchise by outlet count are not tied to any of the KFTC's 102 groups. The KFTC's 2025 franchise statistics put Paris Baguette first among bakery franchises with 3,327 outlets and Mega MGC Coffee first among coffee franchises with 3,325 outlets at the end of 2024.

Their franchisors do not appear among the 3,538 affiliates. The franchise registry lists (주)파리크라상 as franchisor of 파리바게뜨 and (주)엠지씨글로벌 as franchisor of 메가엠지씨커피, and neither company name appears in the KFTC's 2026 affiliate list.

Both also rank high on other KFTC measures. Paris Baguette also opened 52 new outlets in 2024 and ranked second among bakery chains on average outlet sales, at 705.6 million won, while Mega MGC Coffee opened 657 new outlets, more than any other coffee franchise that year.

The same check found no affiliate whose name contains 이디야, 교촌, 무신사 or 다이소 in the 2026 list. That is a search of company names, not a ruling on who owns those brands; it shows only that they are not listed as affiliates of a designated group.

So the rule of thumb that a big chain means a chaebol does not hold. Of the brands in this guide, 7-Eleven, Lotteria, GS25, emart24, Olive Young and Starbucks Korea trace to large designated groups, CU to a much lower-ranked one, and Paris Baguette and Mega MGC Coffee to none.

The table below decodes the brand names as they appear on signs and in the KFTC registry. None of these companies publishes a price list that this guide could verify, so the price column says so.

If you are shopping at the department stores and duty-free counters these groups run, our guide to getting a tax refund explains the refund process separately.

How to check who owns a brand

You can trace any franchise brand to its group with two public sources. The steps below use the KFTC's franchise registry and the 2026 affiliate list, both of which this guide used.

The affiliate list separates financial companies from the rest. Lotte's 98 affiliates, for example, are 95 non-financial companies and three financial ones, 롯데캐피탈(주), 롯데오토리스(주) and 롯데벤처스(주), so search both columns when you look up a company.

The method has limits. The registry covers franchise brands, so chains that run all their own stores will not appear, and the affiliate list covers only groups with 5 trillion won or more in assets.

It also cannot tell you whether a particular shop is run by the company or a franchisee. The registry shows only that a brand franchises, not which outlets are franchised, and none of the companies' pages read for this guide splits its store count that way.

Ownership data says nothing about payment methods. For that, our guide to cash or card in Seoul covers what works at the till.

What this guide does not cover

Shareholdings are not covered. The KFTC's designation lists which companies belong to which group but, in the parts read for this guide, not who owns what share of each; Starbucks Korea's own pages do not give today's ownership split either.

Store addresses and flagship locations are not given. The department-store and cinema operators' store lists were not read, and several company sites, including Emart's, CGV's and Olive Young's shopping site, returned errors.

The 7-Eleven Korea site could not be used as a source because the page returned showed 2014 figures, so this guide relies on the KFTC for 7-Eleven's outlet count and franchisor.

Online shopping, delivery apps and payment services are outside this guide's scope, even where a designated group runs them. The KFTC list includes groups such as Coupang, Naver, Kakao and Toss, but this guide covers only the shop signs you pass on a street.

Groups outside the designation are not assessed. A brand missing from the affiliate list may still belong to a sizeable company; the KFTC list covers only groups with assets of 5 trillion won or more, and this guide makes no claim about the owners of brands it could not trace. For getting around between shopping districts, our guide to the T-money card covers the transit basics.