BGF Retail said on the 25th that it held a topping-out ceremony for its Busan logistics center, which is being built as the largest facility in the domestic convenience store industry. A topping-out ceremony is an event held when a building's framework is nearly complete to raise the main beam, the building's central support. A topping-out document, which records the date and wishes for the ceremony, is placed together to announce the birth of the structure and to pray for peace and prosperity.
The construction of the Busan logistics center was pursued based on an agreement signed with the Busan Metropolitan Government in 2021. Ground was broken in September last year, with completion targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026. The site area is 47,000 square meters, and the total floor area is 120,000 square meters, twice the size of the existing central logistics center. The total investment is about 220 billion won, the largest in BGF Retail's history.
The center will comprise ambient- and cold-chain logistics facilities and introduce advanced equipment such as shuttle-based automated storage and retrieval (AS/RS), auto labelers, and a digital picking system (DPS). It also plans to install solar power facilities to produce about 2,700 MWh of electricity annually.
Through the center, BGF Retail plans to efficiently reorganize the Yeongnam region delivery network, while speeding up logistics transport to overseas markets such as Mongolia, Malaysia, and Kazakhstan to add momentum to its global expansion.
Hong Jeong-guk, BGF vice chairman, said, "This topping-out ceremony marks not the rise of a single building, but the moment a single dream soars," adding, "The Busan logistics center, based on a state-of-the-art smart logistics system, will contribute to stabilizing logistics in the Yeongnam region and serve as a forward base for imports and exports, becoming the core of BGF Retail's future growth engine."