Seoul: Sales of franchise stores in South Korea grew at the slowest pace since the COVID-19 pandemic last year, a sign business conditions remained harsh amid a sluggish economy, data showed Wednesday. Franchised stores reported combined sales of 117.8 trillion won (US$81 billion) in 2024, up 6.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics.

According to Yonhap News Agency, this marks the smallest on-year growth since 2020, when the figure fell by 0.5 percent. Coffee and non-alcoholic beverage franchises experienced the largest on-year sales growth of 12.8 percent. Study and leisure space rental services followed with an 11.2 percent increase, and Korean food franchises saw a 10 percent rise in sales.

The number of franchise stores rose 4 percent on-year to 314,000 nationwide in 2024. A total of 1.04 million people were employed at franchise stores last year, marking a 2.2 percent increase on-year, though this figure represents the lowest rate of increase since 2020, when employment dropped 5.2 percent due to the pandemic.

The ministry attributed the slowing growth in jobs to a growing number of unmanned stores and self-service kiosks. In 2024, a franchise store posted an average of 375.2 million won in sales, an increase of 2.7 percent from a year earlier.