Delayed settlement of an average of 774 million won
"The survival of delivery companies should come first."
![At a press conference on the 34th day of the indefinite hunger strike for Homeplus workers held at the National Assembly Communication Center on the 16th, Kang Woo-chul, chairman of the Mart Workers' Union, is calling for the implementation of his promise to normalize Homeplus. [Yonhap News]](https://wimg.mk.co.kr/news/cms/202606/24/rcv.YNA.20260616.PYH2026061613560001300_P1.jpg)
It was found that 77% of small and medium-sized business owners delivering Homeplus, who are experiencing delays in payment settlement, are experiencing management difficulties.
According to a survey of 150 small and medium-sized businesses delivering Homeplus on the 23rd conducted by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Businesses that are experiencing delays in payment settlement, 76.7% (very difficult 34.7% + 42.0%) of small business owners responded that they are experiencing "management difficulties" due to the delay in payment settlement.
The average amount of delivery money not received from Homeplus was 774 million won, excluding extreme values (maximum and minimum). 40.7% of companies that did not receive more than 500 million won (16.7% for less than 500 million won + 24.0% for more than 1 billion won), the survey showed.
In particular, 98.0% of the respondents said the settlement has been delayed for more than 60 days from the delivery date, indicating that most responding companies have been tied up with funds for months.
Delayed payment of raw and subsidiary materials (85.3%) was the highest as difficulties (multiple responses) due to delayed settlement. It was followed by a lack of essential operating funds (65.3%) such as new product development and marketing, delayed labor cost payments and a crisis of human resources departure (24.7%), a burden of repaying loans from the financial sector and a crisis of falling credit ratings (10.0%).
The most urgent measures (multiple responses) required by the affected small and medium-sized business owners were support for loans (95.3%) and priority settlement (95.3%) based on the sale price of the Express, the government's support for emergency management stabilization funds and expansion of low-interest loans (44.0%), and strengthening the payment system (39.3%) such as mandatory deposit of delivery payments to third parties.
Kim Hee-joong, head of the economic policy division of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, said, "We are facing an unexpected liquidity crisis as Homeplus' settlement delay has been prolonged for months. Only when the survival of small and medium-sized companies in delivery is guaranteed, it is possible to normalize Homeplus, and since there is no responsibility at all for the Homeplus management crisis, the survival of these companies should be the top priority."
