The number of franchise stores in the country last year was tallied at 301,000, an increase of 15,000 (5.2%) compared to the previous year. During the same period, the number of franchise industry employees increased by 69,000 (7.4%) to 1,012,000. By industry, convenience stores, Korean food, and coffee saw increases in the number of stores, employees, and sales revenue. On the other hand, the stationery industry saw an increase in the number of stores but a decrease in the number of employees and sales revenue.
According to the '2023 Franchise (Franchise Store) Survey Results' released by Statistics Korea on the 24th, the number of franchise stores last year was tallied at 301,000. This is an increase of 15,000 compared to 286,000 in 2022. The industry with the most franchise stores was convenience stores, with a total of 54,823 stores. This was followed by Korean food franchises (50,128) and coffee and non-alcoholic beverage franchises (32,238).
The industry with the highest rate of increase in the number of stores was foreign cuisine, with a 13.6% rise. Stationery stores increased by 11.6%, and Korean food by 10.3%.
The number of franchise employees increased in most industries compared to the previous year, including Korean food (17.2%), draft beer and other pubs (17.0%), and foreign cuisine (12.4%). However, there was a decrease in auto repair (-21,000 employees, -7.6%) and stationery stores (-2,000 employees, -4.1%).
The annual sales revenue of franchises was tallied at 108.8 trillion won. The sales share was largest for convenience stores at 27.865 trillion won, accounting for 25.6%. The sales revenue for Korean food franchises was 17.592 trillion won, representing 16.2% of the total. The third-largest industry was chicken, not coffee. Chicken franchise sales were 8.16 trillion won, an increase of 7.5% compared to the previous year.