Store Count Fell for the First Time Ever, But Earnings Went in Opposite Directions — CU, GS25, and 7-Eleven's Three-Year Report Card

Korea's convenience store market just hit an inflection point it had never seen before: a drop in store count. As of the end of 2025, the combined store count of the four major chains — CU, GS25, 7-Eleven, and Emart24 — stood at 53,266, down 1,586 stores, or 2.9%, from 54,852 at the end of 2024. It's the first time annual store count has declined since the convenience store industry launched in Korea in 1988. Combined revenue growth across the four chains slowed to just 0.1% in 2025.

That doesn't mean the market has entered a one-way decline. By the end of July 2026, the four chains' combined store count had climbed back to 53,458 — up 192 from the end of 2025, turning positive again. After trimming low-margin stores, the chains appear to have resumed opening stores, this time concentrated in prime locations and larger, specialized formats.

Earnings didn't move in one direction either. BGF Retail, which operates CU, posted record revenue and record operating profit in 2025. GS25's convenience store division saw operating profit decline in 2024, but by Q2 2026 same-store growth and a stronger fresh-food lineup had brought both revenue and profit back up. Korea Seven, which operates 7-Eleven, posted an annual operating loss for a fourth straight year through 2025 — but in Q2 2026 it finally turned a quarterly profit, its first in 11 quarters.

So in the same market, amid the same store-count adjustment, why did the three companies' report cards turn out so differently?

Three-Year Results for the Big Three

Here we compare three years of results, 2023 through 2025, alongside the latest Q2 2026 figures. One caveat is worth flagging up front. Because BGF Retail's consolidated revenue comes almost entirely from the CU convenience store business, its consolidated results can be read as a direct proxy for that business — and the same is true for Korea Seven's 7-Eleven business. GS Retail is different: alongside GS25, it also runs the GS The Fresh supermarket chain, the GS Shop home shopping business, and several subsidiaries. That means GS Retail's consolidated results and GS25's convenience-store-segment results shouldn't be compared side by side as if they were the same thing. Throughout this piece, we use BGF Retail's and Korea Seven's company-wide results, but for GS25 we default to segment-level convenience store results wherever they're available.

CU, Operated by BGF Retail

Figures below are in KRW 100 million (억원) units, as disclosed.

Category	2023	2024	2025
Revenue	81,948	86,988 (+6.2%)	90,612 (+4.2%)
Operating Profit	2,532 (+0.3%)	2,516 (-0.6%)	2,539 (+0.9%)

In 2024, revenue grew 6.2% to KRW 8.6988 trillion, but operating profit fell 0.6% to KRW 251.6 billion. The company attributed the profit decline to rising fixed costs — rent, logistics, and labor — combined with an unfavorable operating environment.

In 2025, both figures hit records: revenue of KRW 9.0612 trillion and operating profit of KRW 253.9 billion, up 4.2% and 0.9% year over year respectively. The operating profit gain was modest, but an expanded share of general merchandise, a shrinking share of tobacco, and store openings concentrated in prime locations all helped defend margins. CU ended 2025 with 18,711 stores, up 253 from the year before.

The pattern for CU, in short: revenue grew for three straight years, while operating profit dipped once in 2024 before rebounding in 2025.

GS25, the Convenience Store Division

Category	2023	2024	2025
GS25 Revenue	82,457	86,661 (+5.1%)	89,396
GS25 Operating Profit	~2,183	1,946 (-10.9%)	1,861
GS Retail Consolidated Revenue	116,125	116,551	119,574 (+3.3%)
GS Retail Consolidated Operating Profit	4,050	2,391	2,921 (+14.1%)

GS25's 2023 revenue was KRW 8.2457 trillion, KRW 50.9 billion more than CU's at the time. Disclosed and reported figures for the convenience store division's operating profit that year vary slightly — either KRW 218.3 billion or KRW 218.8 billion — with KRW 218.3 billion being the figure used as the prior-year comparison base in the 2024 earnings release.

In 2024, GS25 revenue grew 5.1% to KRW 8.6661 trillion, but operating profit fell 10.9% to KRW 194.6 billion. Rising depreciation tied to new store openings and higher advertising/promotion spending were cited as the drivers of the profit decline. That's roughly KRW 57.0 billion less than BGF Retail's consolidated operating profit (KRW 251.6 billion) the same year — though it's worth remembering one is a GS25 segment figure and the other a BGF Retail consolidated figure, so the comparison isn't perfectly apples-to-apples.

In 2025, GS25 revenue reached KRW 8.9396 trillion, ahead of CU's convenience-store-segment revenue of KRW 8.8581 trillion — but GS25's operating profit of KRW 186.1 billion trailed CU's convenience-store-segment operating profit of KRW 235.9 billion. GS25 kept its revenue lead; CU came out ahead on profit.

Zooming out to GS Retail as a whole, 2025 consolidated revenue reached KRW 11.9574 trillion and operating profit KRW 292.1 billion, up 3.3% and 14.1% respectively. But that rebound includes contributions from GS The Fresh, GS Shop, and the cleanup of underperforming businesses — not the convenience store segment alone. GS Retail's 2024 consolidated results also carry some figure variance across sources tied to a hotel-business spin-off and differing comparative-presentation methods, so segment-level comparisons are safer built on GS25's own disclosed numbers. A rebound at the group level shouldn't automatically be read as an equivalent rebound in the convenience store business specifically.

7-Eleven, Operated by Korea Seven

Category	2023	2024	2025
Revenue	~56,592	52,975	48,227 (-9%)
Operating Profit/Loss	~-641	-844	-686

Korea Seven's figures vary somewhat across sources depending on whether they're presented on a consolidated or standalone basis, and depending on how the Ministop merger is reflected before and after. The company's first consolidated earnings release for 2023 disclosed revenue of KRW 5.6918 trillion and an operating loss of KRW 55.1 billion; several later financial and credit-rating sources, along with comparison articles, instead cite a 2023 operating loss of KRW 64.1 billion. Using consistent figures from the same annual report basis is the safest approach for a three-year series — here we've labeled the more widely cited figures as approximate.

The broader trend, though, is unambiguous. After a KRW 12.5 billion operating loss in 2022, Korea Seven's losses widened in both 2023 and 2024, and it posted another loss of KRW 68.6 billion in 2025 — a fourth straight year in the red. Revenue fell 9% to KRW 4.8227 trillion in 2025, but the operating loss narrowed to KRW 68.6 billion from KRW 84.4 billion the year before, a KRW 15.8 billion improvement. Narrower losses despite falling revenue suggest store-efficiency efforts are starting to show results, even if the business hasn't yet turned an annual profit.

In 2025, Korea Seven overhauled product assortment and operations at roughly 1,700 stores, and said those stores saw sales growth roughly 7 percentage points higher than stores that weren't part of the program. Rather than simply holding store count steady, the strategy has shifted toward diagnosing and improving the efficiency of the existing network.

Q2 2026: All Three Companies' Profits Improved

The most recent comparable results — Q2 2026 (April–June) — show profitability improving at all three companies. But the character of that improvement differs.

Category	Q2 2026 Revenue	Q2 2026 Operating Profit/Loss	YoY
BGF Retail	24,268	849	Revenue +6.0%, Profit +22.3%
GS25 (convenience store segment)	23,844	714	Revenue +7.1%, Profit +21.0%
Korea Seven	12,178	41	Revenue -2.6%, Turned Profitable

CU: Product Mix and Summer Items Boosted Profit

BGF Retail's Q2 2026 revenue reached KRW 2.4268 trillion and operating profit KRW 84.9 billion, up 6.0% and 22.3% year over year. H1 cumulative revenue was KRW 4.5472 trillion and operating profit KRW 123.0 billion, up 5.6% and 33.7%. Fewer rainy days and higher average temperatures drove stronger sales of high-margin summer items like beverages and ice cream, while a bigger share of food and processed food and a shrinking share of tobacco lifted the merchandise margin. The company says one-off costs tied to a logistics-sector strike were more than offset by this improved product mix.

GS25: Fresh-Food-Focused Stores Drove the Rebound

GS25's Q2 2026 revenue reached KRW 2.3844 trillion and operating profit KRW 71.4 billion, up 7.1% and 21.0% year over year. Same-store daily sales rose 7.5%, and sales of grocery-run staples — produce, meat, and seafood — jumped 49.6%. GS Retail's consolidated Q2 revenue was KRW 3.1751 trillion and operating profit KRW 109.4 billion, up 6.7% and 27.5% — note that the group-wide operating profit growth rate (27.5%) and the GS25 segment's own growth rate (21.0%) are two different numbers and shouldn't be conflated. The GS25 rebound was driven by a combination of expanded fresh-food-focused store formats, a "scrap-and-build" strategy of enlarging stores and relocating them to better locations, a jump in foreign-customer spending (up 67.2% year over year on a payment-method basis), and stronger sales of IP-collaboration products and health-functional foods.

7-Eleven: A Profit After 11 Quarters

Korea Seven's Q2 2026 revenue fell 2.6% to KRW 1.2178 trillion, but operating profit came in at KRW 4.1 billion — its first quarterly profit since Q3 2023, ending an 11-quarter streak of losses. That's a KRW 12.8 billion improvement from the year-earlier quarter's KRW 8.7 billion operating loss. Still, H1 cumulative results show revenue of KRW 2.2936 trillion and an operating loss of KRW 15.6 billion — revenue down 3.9% year over year, though the operating loss narrowed from KRW 42.7 billion to KRW 15.6 billion, a KRW 27.1 billion improvement. That means "turned profitable" should be read as describing Q2 2026 specifically, not the year as a whole. Korea Seven applied data-driven store diagnostics and assortment improvements at roughly 5,000 stores, and said those stores' sales growth ran roughly 10 percentage points ahead of stores that weren't included. Because this is a profit posted while revenue is still shrinking, it looks more like the product of store-efficiency work and cost restructuring than a growth-driven profit accompanied by a revenue recovery. Whether it's sustainable will only become clear once Q3 and Q4 results are in.

Fewer Stores, Higher Category Sales — Not a Contradiction

The four chains' combined store count fell by 1,586 in 2025, yet convenience-store category revenue — as tracked by Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy — still grew 0.1% for the year. Fewer stores doesn't necessarily mean lower total sales, if the sales per remaining store improve, or if prices and average ticket size rise.

In July 2026, convenience store category sales rose 1.1% year over year, extending a growth streak that has now run 13 straight months since July 2025. But transaction count fell 0.5% while average ticket size rose 1.6%. Food sales grew 2.6%, while non-food sales fell 1.0%. The picture this paints is less "more customers are visiting convenience stores" and more that spending per visit, and food purchases specifically, are what's propping up category revenue.

That said, this shouldn't be read as proof of a long-term, industry-wide decline in foot traffic. The Ministry's data aggregates monthly transaction counts and average ticket sizes from a set of major retailers under observation. It's a useful read on the single month of July 2026, but it isn't a full census representing the long-run behavior of every convenience store and every consumer.

The Core Insight — Store Counts Fell, So Why Did Results Diverge?

CU Managed High-Margin Products and Its Store Portfolio Together

CU's strength isn't simply that it runs the most stores. Its 2025 store count reached 18,711, up 253 — and stores opened in 2025 posted average daily sales 6.4% higher than stores opened the year before, the result of selectively opening profitable, mid-to-large-format locations. On the product side, CU invested in desserts, ready-to-eat meals, character IP collaborations, and deep-discount private label. In Q2 2026, a shrinking tobacco share and a growing food and processed-food share lifted the average merchandise margin. Store count increases now matter less to profit than which products get sold in which stores.

GS25 Rebounded on Same-Store Growth After 2024's Cost Burden

GS25 grew revenue in 2024 even as operating profit fell, weighed down by depreciation tied to new store openings and higher advertising and promotion spending — a clear case of expansion not translating directly into profit growth. In Q2 2026, fresh-food-focused stores and the scrap-and-build strategy lifted same-store daily sales by 7.5%, driven by enlarging and relocating existing stores and strengthening nearby grocery-run categories like produce, fruit, and meat. To me, the GS25 case shows that a strategy built around getting more purchase occasions out of existing stores has become more important than simply adding new ones — a sign that convenience stores are shifting from short-visit outlets built around tobacco and drinks into near-home grocery channels built around fresh food and ready-to-eat meals.

For 7-Eleven, Resolving Integration Fallout Came Before Expansion

Korea Seven's widening losses trace back to its 2022 acquisition of Korea Ministop. Brand conversion, systems integration, store-cleanup costs, and debt burden have all been repeatedly cited as factors, and Korea Seven itself said in its first 2023 earnings release that Ministop integration-management costs were weighing on profitability. But it's difficult to precisely separate out how much each factor actually contributed to the losses using public data alone — disclosure is particularly limited when it comes to breaking down the respective contributions of royalty and debt burden, product competitiveness, and store efficiency. So rather than asserting that "royalties paid to the U.S. parent caused the losses" or that "the Ministop acquisition was the sole cause," it's more accurate to describe integration costs, declining store efficiency, and intensifying market competition as having worked together.

A Market "Store Count Leadership" Alone No Longer Explains

CU ended 2025 running 18,711 stores. GS25 and 7-Eleven both focused on cleaning up underperforming locations. But given that the four chains' combined store count turned positive again as of July 2026, describing the Korean market as caught in an ongoing, simple contraction isn't accurate either. A more precise description: the era of indiscriminate net store additions has ended, and the industry has entered a phase of portfolio reshuffling — closing and opening stores at the same time.

In the past, more stores meant more purchasing leverage, better logistics efficiency, and greater brand visibility. Store networks still matter — but keeping low-revenue stores open purely to inflate the count can drive up depreciation, logistics costs, and support expenses. Going forward, store count needs to be read alongside:

• Same-store sales growth
• Daily and annual sales per store
• New-store sales at 6 and 12 months after opening
• The share of stores that have crossed breakeven
• The average sales gap between closed stores and new openings
• The sales mix between food/processed food and tobacco
• The sales share of private label and differentiated products
• Operating-support cost per store
• Cross-purchase rates between quick commerce and physical stores

Store count signals market position. Sales per store and product mix signal the quality of that position's earnings.

Business Impact

2025 marked a shift in how Korea's convenience store industry grows in scale. The four chains' combined store count fell for the first time, and category revenue growth slowed to just 0.1%. But results didn't deteriorate across the board — CU posted revenue growth above the category average and record operating profit; GS25, after a profitability decline in 2024, rebounded in Q2 2026 on same-store growth and a stronger fresh-food lineup; and 7-Eleven posted its first quarterly profit in 11 quarters even as store cleanup kept revenue shrinking.

Practically speaking, this shift sets a clear agenda for the industry as a whole. The era of explaining growth purely through new-store counts is over; new-store sales projections, cannibalization risk at existing stores, and planned closures now need to be managed on the same footing. Lifting average ticket size is also shifting away from simple price increases toward securing product categories — ready-to-eat meals, desserts, fresh food — that raise both purchase frequency and margin together. GS25's fresh-food-focused stores and CU's grocery-run specialty formats can both be read as attempts to capture not just quick, single-item purchases but also nearby grocery-run demand.