Sajo Industries

Sajo Industries is a core affiliate of the Sajo Group, engaged in deep-sea fishing (tuna, pollock, squid), meat processing, canned tuna manufacturing, soy sauce production, cold-storage warehouse operations, and real estate leasing.

According to JobKorea corporate data, the Q1 2026 revenue mix was roughly 23% seafood processing, 22% canned seafood, 17% tuna and cod products, 11% livestock slaughter and meat, and 27% other.

Its flagship consumer brands include canned tuna and the Haepyo cooking oil brand acquired in 2004, and the company holds the No.2 position in the domestic tuna can market behind Dongwon F&B.

Within the group's pyramid ownership structure, Sajo Industries sits beneath the unlisted holding company Sajo Systems and serves as the parent of major affiliates such as Sajo Seafood, Sajo Daerim, and Sajo Oyang, forming the upstream link in the group's catch-to-processing-to-distribution chain.

Raw material sourcing centers on deep-sea catches of tuna and pollock along with imported grains and oils, directly exposing earnings to international commodity prices and currency swings. The group has recently strengthened vertical integration by acquiring food distributor Foodist and starch producer Sajo CPK.

Competition overlaps with Dongwon Industries and Dongwon F&B in tuna and canned goods, and with CJ CheilJedang and Ottogi in cooking oil, with pricing power for cost pass-through often tied to industry-wide simultaneous price hikes.

Ancillary businesses such as cold-storage warehousing and real estate leasing also contribute to overall results.

Consolidated revenue rose to KRW 706.2 billion in 2025 from KRW 635.2 billion in 2024, and operating profit swung to a positive KRW 33.15 billion from an operating loss of KRW 9.38 billion in 2024.

However, owner net profit reversed from a profit of KRW 4.63 billion in 2024 to a loss of KRW 29.1 billion in 2025, suggesting sizable swings in non-operating items.

On a quarterly basis, both operating profit (KRW 11.86 billion) and owner net profit (KRW 15.57 billion) were solid through Q3 2025, but Q4 2025 saw operating profit turn negative at KRW -5.79 billion while owner net profit deteriorated sharply to KRW -74.0 billion.

Into 2026, operating profit recovered to KRW 4.67 billion in Q1 and KRW 16.38 billion in Q2, yet owner net profit remained negative at KRW -3.45 billion and KRW -40.9 billion respectively, with a particularly wide gap in Q2 despite the positive operating result.

This persistent divergence between operating profit and net profit points to non-operating factors, potentially including equity-method losses from affiliates, weighing heavily on recent results.

Notably, affiliate Sajo Seafood also maintained an operating profit in 2025 but swung to a net loss after booking an equity-method investment loss.

On the cash flow side, operating cash flow turned negative at KRW -20.5 billion in 2025, reversing from a KRW 27.4 billion inflow in 2024, indicating weaker cash generation.

The debt ratio rose to 97.0% in 2025 from the 80% range seen in 2022-2024, while owner equity edged down from KRW 549.3 billion in 2024 to KRW 534.5 billion in 2025.

Since 2026, the domestic canned tuna and seafood processing industry has faced accumulating cost pressure from a weaker won against the dollar, firmer international tuna prices, reduced fishing quotas, and rising packaging and logistics costs.

In response, Sajo raised wholesale prices across major processed foods from August 3, 2026, including a 10% hike on tuna cans, 20% on canned mackerel and other seafood, and 12% on soy sauce and cooking oil, having already raised fish cake and crab stick prices by 6-7% in early July.

Market leader Dongwon F&B also announced an average 9-10% price increase on major products effective September 1, 2026, indicating industry-wide, near-simultaneous price adjustments.

CJ CheilJedang has likewise adjusted prices on products such as Hetbahn instant rice and dumplings, reflecting broadly spreading cost-driven inflation across processed foods.

The deep-sea fishing segment in particular is cited as bearing accumulated cost burdens from the combination of reduced catch quotas and rising tuna prices.

The Sajo Group has added metal packaging container manufacturing to its business scope to pursue in-house can production and cost savings, though this is viewed as having limited capacity to fully offset pressure stemming from raw materials and currency.

Competitively, the tuna can market structure remains stable with Dongwon F&B in first place and Sajo in second, making the market penetration of the price hikes and consumer response key variables for future results.

In the near term, the key watch point is whether the effects of the early-August 2026 price hikes on tuna cans, seafood cans, and soy sauce products flow through to third-quarter results.

Whether the increases translate fully into revenue and margin without a volume decline, or whether consumption pulls back despite simultaneous hikes across competitors, remains to be seen.

The deep-sea fishing segment's cost trajectory will continue to hinge on international tuna prices and the won-dollar exchange rate, making currency stabilization a factor to watch for second-half cost ratios.

At the group level, efforts to produce metal packaging containers in-house are underway to reduce costs, though the benefits are likely to take time to materialize.

Given the recurring pattern of operating profit alongside sizable owner net losses in recent quarters, whether the volatility in non-operating items such as equity-method gains and losses from affiliates eases going forward also warrants monitoring.

The progress of value-up plans at affiliates such as Sajo Seafood and Sajo Daerim, and their contribution to consolidated results, are additional variables to track.