Herald Corp., the publisher of The Korea Herald, on Tuesday paid out dividends of 500 won ($0.45) per share for the first time since the company was established.
Under the management of Jungwook Hong, chairman of Herald Corp., Herald subsidiaries have been on a steady rise.
Herald Square, the company’s headquarters in central Seoul. (Herald Corp.)
In 2014, Herald’s core media businesses posted sales of 60.5 billion won and a net profit of 5 billion won. Including the company’s food and materials subsidiaries, sales came in at over 115 billion won.
The company projects the combined sales of all subsidiaries will surpass 140 billion won this year.
The company has recorded net surplus for 10 consecutive years. In place of dividend payouts, it has so far spent one-third of its profits on employee welfare and the remainder on reinvesting into its business.
This year, however, the company chose to pay out dividends to mark the 10th year in the black.
“The Herald, which had suffered from losses for more than 50 years, has turned a profit for the 10th consecutive year, aided by the employees’ efforts,” Hong said.
“In the future, the efficiency of the mobile-only strategy will be maximized for the media businesses, while the aim for lifestyle businesses is to achieve 10-fold growth in 10 years by concentrating on the vision of ‘natural food.’”
The company, acquired by Hong in 2002, turned a profit for the first time in decades in 2005, and has continued to do so each year since.
Herald Corp.’s food-related business is led by Organica Premium Whole Foods, which produces eco-friendly whole foods.
Other subsidiaries include Herald Ecochem, a producer of plastic materials used in a wide range of industries, Herald Design, Herald Artday and Herald Fashion.
Herald Design is a design convention and education services provider, Herald Artday specializes in online art auctions and Herald Fashion is in charge of fashion business at Herald Donga, which runs cable channel DongA TV.
By Choi He-suk (
cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)