CEO says Happynarae will be new model of corporate social responsibility in Korea
SK Group turned its maintenance, repair and operation company with annual sales of 120 billion won into a social enterprise that purchases expendable supplies preferentially from firms that hire socially vulnerable people.
SK Group said Tuesday MRO Korea was renamed Happynarae Co. and will now operate as a social enterprise to be officially certified by the Labor Ministry six months later.
The nation’s third-largest conglomerate has taken steps to transform its MRO subsidiary into a social enterprise since last August upon the suggestion of its chairman Chey Tae-won.
Happynarae completed the revision of company rules to spend more than two-thirds of its profits on social purposes and appointed four social enterprise experts as outside directors on its seven-member board.
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Kang Dae-sung (second from right), the chief executive of SK Group’s new social enterprise Happynarae, poses with the company’s outside directors after a press conference at SK headquarters on Tuesday. (SK Group) |
“We will try to make Happynarae an exemplary model of global social enterprise in terms of innovative management and social contribution in addition to size,” Happynarae chief executive Kang Dae-sung said in a press conference.
“Happynarae will be a social enterprise that helps social enterprises and contributes toward creating social jobs and resolving other social problems.”
Happynarae will give priority to small social enterprises when selecting partner companies, and pay them in cash 30 days in advance compared to other firms, SK Group said.
Happynarae plans to add about 30 more social enterprises as partners, raising the number to about 50, and increase the amount of purchases from them to 10 billion won next year and 19 billion won in 2015, up from this year’s 7 billion won.
The company has hired 10 senior citizens, single parents and migrant women as regular staff and plans to expand its employment of the socially vulnerable.
The average annual sales figure of about 640 social enterprises in Korea is about 1 billion won.
Happynarae will be a new model of corporate social responsibility that is unprecedented not just in Korea but across the world, SK Group said.
By Kim So-hyun (
sophie@heraldcorp.com)
