GS Group will focus on digital competency and environmentally-friendly management to discover new business projects, the chairman of the group Huh Tae-soo said on Monday.

In a livestreamed New Year’s address from the company‘s headquarters in Seoul, Huh said his company will push for “new businesses in various fields” and urged employees to adjust their ways of working to adapt to change.

While last year was a “period of change” marred by the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, the group kept its efforts to move things digital and restructure its business, he added.

To improve profitability, GS Group said it applied its Digital Transformation strategy to all of its businesses last year where “data and artificial intelligence takes center stage.”

In November, its retail business GS Retail, which operates GS25 convenience stores, merged with TV home shopping channel affiliate GS Home Shopping. The move came as retailers rush to integrate online and offline operations amid an online shopping boom fueled by the pandemic.

Last year, GS Group also opened venture capital firms GS Futures in Silicon Valley as part of efforts to build a growth engine by investing in startups.

By Yim Hyun-su (hyunsu@heraldcorp.com)