E-Mart, the country’s largest supermarket chain, said Wednesday that it will provide support funds worth 300 billion won ($260 million) to its partner firms as part of its shared growth plan.

In a press conference that invited 100 chiefs of its partner firms, E-Mart chief executive Choi Byung-ryul announced four major directions for shared growth including developing products together with its partners and giving greater financial support to smaller firms.

The other two are expanding the number of practical business support programs and increasing communication channels as well as establishing a fair trade culture within the companies, said Choi.

“We can’t achieve our goal of ‘Every day low price’ if E-Mart and its suppliers don’t have a shared growth plan,” he said. “Since becoming the first in the country to introduce ethical management, we will give weight to our shared growth scheme with our partners by announcing the four major shared growth measures.”

As an initial step, the supermarket chain will give cash on delivery to shared growth products, which are worth 100 billion won, to 50 of its suppliers until the end of this year, according to its officials.

It will also add 100 billion won to the shared growth fund and enable its suppliers to get loans worth up to 300 billion won, said company officials.

E-Mart will expand its exhibition centers for mid- and small-sized firms beginning this month and increase its contract terms to two years from a year with the new partners of smaller sizes for a more stable business, its officials said.

Officials also said the company planned to designate a day starting this year to visit its suppliers. The chief executive, executives of its product development team and buyers also plan to visit their supplier regularly ― at least once a month ― to hold conferences and reflect the results in the firm’s business policies.

E-Mart has offered financial funding worth 510 billion won to 1,420 firms over the past eight years and paid about 28 trillion won in cash for products of 24,174 suppliers.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)