이 기사는 2022년 05월 13일 07:59 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

GS Retail is actively making investments in the pet industry to grow its pet-related subsidiary AboutPet.

GS Retail has recently announced that it acquired a 4.3% stake in IAMDT by investing 2.5 billion won ($1.93 million) in a series A funding round. IAMDT operates animal hospital management brand Vet Honors.

Previously, GS Retail purchased stakes in Pet Friends and Dogmate in 2017 by investing 200 million won and 300 billion won, respectively. It added 44.7 billion won and 300 million won investments in the companies after that.

The company invested 3 billion won in Varram System and 300 million won in Petpick in 2018 and made additional investments worth 3.9 billion won and 300 million won, respectively. GS Retail acquired a 62.6% stake in AboutPet for 5 billion won and made it its subsidiary.

GS Retail started to pay attention to the pet business in 2016 when its convenience store chain GS25 begun selling pet products.

GS Retail launched its own private brand of healthy treat products in 2017 and put extra efforts into the pet products category when GS Fresh renewed its online shopping mall.

GS Homeshopping also reportedly invested in the pet business before its merger with GS Retail. GS Homeshopping owned a 15.65% stake in Pet Friends and a 17.65% stake in Varram System at the end of 2020.

GS Retail’s merger with GS Homeshopping paved the way to secure many companies that are capable of strengthening partnerships with AboutPet.

Pet Friends, partly owned by GS Retail, is said to be the country’s No.1 pet product retailer. Dogmate is a pet sitter hiring platform and Petpick is a customized pet food retailer. Varram System is a pet fitness robot maker.

GS Retail has newly added IAMDT in its portfolio to expand its business to the animal hospital management sector. GS Retail seems to be planning to grow its pet business to become its future growth engine through active partnerships with pet-related companies. (Reporting by Seon-ho Kim)