Korea Express Makes Clear its Independence from the Dong-Ah Group

The Korea Express Co., seems to parting from the Dong-Ah Construction
Group.
Korea Express Co.'s president, Kwak Young-uk, who had his first annive
rsary as president as of May 8, declared in the "survival rally " that
the Korea Express Co., struggling because it is the guarantor of the
Dong-Ah's debts, will become independent of the Dong-Ah Construction G
roup through a business rationalization establishment.
In the first step to realize this goal, the regular board of directors
released the Dong-Ah Construction Group's head , Ko Byung-chul from t
he Advisorship.
The Korea Express Co. also halted further use of the Dong-Ah symbol, u
sed according to the guidance of the Dong-Ah Group since 1992. In it
s place, they have made their own symbol.
This new symbol has a diamond shape inside a circle. The outside circl
e represents the Earth and the round face symbolizes worldwide air log
istic chains. The diamond shape inside circle indicates land-routes an
d CFSs (Container Freight Stations), storage, which are called logisti
c centers.
The space between circle and diamond shape represents ocean logistic c
hains and the square space inside the diamond shape, cyberspace and lo
gistic cargoes, which indicates e-commerce and logistics. All these in
dicate Korea Express's business ideaology, "Leading company in total l
ogistics for the 21st century".
The new business idea is to create the greatest customer satisfaction,
the greatest profits for share-holders, and the best workplaces for w
orkers.
They had a 14.1 billion won surplus last year, a stunning achievement
when compared to the 88.9 billion won deficit of 1998. In this year as
of April, they surpassed last year's gross profit and reached 15 bill
ion won.
They also decided to invest in value-added enterprises, cutting off in
vestment failures. In this way they lowered the debt rate to 130 perce
nt as of late April, an improvement when compared to 152 percent at th
e end of last year.
They hope to be below 100 percent by the end of next year, ensuring a
stable financial foundation.