Food material distribution and catering corporations CJ Freshway has become the largest shareholder of Marketboro, which operates "Sikbom," Korea's leading open-market platform for food materials.
CJ Freshway disclosed on the 5th that it signed a share purchase agreement (SPA) to acquire equity in Marketboro. The acquisition target is 27.5% equity in Marketboro, and the total purchase price is 40.3 billion won.
Chief Executive Lee Geon-il of CJ Freshway said of the acquisition, "We expect that combining CJ Freshway's robust logistics network, which leads Korea's food material distribution industry, with Marketboro's technology optimized for open markets will invigorate the online market overall," adding, "We will work to build a healthy ecosystem in which the platform operator, sellers, and buyers can all grow together."
Marketboro is a corporations that operates the open-market platform "Sikbom," which leads the online food material distribution market, and the food material ordering and distribution management service "Marketbom." Sikbom has about 220,000 cumulative subscribers, the largest in the industry. The transaction amount increased from about 20 billion won in 2022 to 234.1 billion won in 2025.
CJ Freshway's acquisition of Marketboro reflects its intent to secure new growth engines in response to changes in the food material distribution market, which is rapidly shifting from offline to online. CJ Freshway plans to maximize synergy with Marketboro through the know-how of Korea's largest food material distribution corporations and its nationwide cold chain logistics network.
CJ Freshway has continued to invest in its O2O (a model that connects consumers both online and offline to induce purchases and services) business to build a future-oriented business model for the food material distribution industry and to expand the market size. In Nov. last year, CJ Freshway launched its own online mall "FreshN," and it is leading the advancement of the food material distribution industry with recent moves such as introducing a beta service for an "AI ordering agent."
A CJ Freshway official said, "Most of the 63 trillion won food material distribution market still operates offline, so Marketboro's growth potential is very high," adding, "Consumers will be able to order a variety of products easily and conveniently, and producers will be able to deliver products quickly to more customers, creating an environment where both can win-win."