Zinus, the Korean online mattress company acquired by Hyundai Department Store Group in 2022, is showing strong signs of recovery after two years of financial struggles.
The company’s turnaround began in late 2023 following a period of significant decline. In 2023, Zinus saw its annual operating profit collapse by 72% to 18.3 billion won ($13.7 million), and even recorded a 3.3 billion won ($2.5 million) deficit in the first half of 2024.
The slump followed Hyundai Department Store Group’s 879 billion won acquisition – the largest in the group’s history – and was primarily attributed to weakened US consumer sentiment and excess inventory issues stemming from the pandemic.
However, by Q4 2024, Zinus reported an operating profit of 16.1 billion won ($12.1 million), representing an 852% increase year-over-year. Sales for the quarter reached 289 billion won ($216.8 million), up 2.4% from the previous year.
The recovery has been driven by normalized orders from major US clients beginning in May 2023, alongside strategic initiatives including the introduction of more efficient compression packaging technology that reduces volume by up to 60%.
Zinus has also benefited from producing most of its mattresses in Indonesia, effectively avoiding recent US tariff issues under the Trump administration. The company expanded its Indonesian mattress production capacity from 901,000 to 1.51 million units over the past two years.
As part of its global diversification strategy, Zinus opened its first store in Shanghai in August 2023, followed by locations in Hangzhou and Xi’an, with further expansion planned for Europe and negotiations underway with distributors in the Middle East and Africa.
