The next 50 years: realizing the 'smart home and smart city' that will shape the future living environment

​Hanssem Co., Ltd. (CEO Kang Seung-soo), a comprehensive home interior company, celebrated its 50th anniversary on September 9. On its 50th anniversary, Hanssem, building on its founding spirit of 'contributing to the advancement of humanity through the improvement of living environments,' declared its 'leap forward as a smart home and smart city company' for the future. Its aspiration is to design homes and cities that incorporate digital technology and to create new solutions for the future living environment, in order to advance from the nation's strongest company in the living environment sector to the world's strongest company.

Making the kitchen the heart of the home—a company that creates spaces, not just furniture

Founded in 1970 in a store of just about 23.15㎡ (7 pyeong) and a vinyl greenhouse factory, Hanssem has grown into the nation's leading comprehensive home interior company with sales of 2 trillion won, writing a 'new paradigm for the living environment' by expanding its business from kitchens to furniture, interiors, and building materials.

In the era of traditional kitchens, Hanssem accelerated the spread of modern standing kitchens and led the way in transforming the kitchen from a space for household labor into a space for living and leisure. Starting from a desire to ease the heavy household burden on homemakers, Hanssem's kitchen business helped spread standing kitchens to households nationwide and transform the kitchen from a place of 'household labor' into a 'family space.'

As Hanssem expanded in earnest from a kitchen company into a furniture company in 1997, it began selling 'spaces' rather than 'furniture.' While previous companies had sold individual pieces of furniture separately, Hanssem introduced 'living room products' that combined sofas, cabinets, and tables all together, and its stores decorated entire bedrooms and living rooms, selling whole spaces as packages. In the home remodeling market, which it entered in earnest in the 2000s, Hanssem applied the integrated production system of automobile manufacturing to interior construction, further concretizing the concept of creating living spaces. It unified the entire process from consultation to design, construction, and after-sales service, and bundled kitchens, bathrooms, windows and doors, flooring, and doors together to create standardized package products.

Born out of in-depth research into living spaces, the 'Hanssem Rehaus Package' products not only offer outstanding livability and design refinement but have also dramatically improved quality while reducing the construction period for an entire home—which could previously take up to a month—to about a week. Furthermore, Hanssem sought to periodically study changes in Korean lifestyles and apply them to product development, aiming to create 'living spaces' that are pleasant to live in, rather than interiors that are merely pretty and pleasing to the eye. Hanssem's corporate motto, 'a place you want to go, a place you want to stay,' embodies this philosophy about living spaces.

Endless evolution over 50 years—No. 1 in every new business field

Based on its philosophy about living spaces and lifestyles, Hanssem has always held onto the No. 1 position in the country in every new business field. In 1986 it became the industry leader in kitchen furniture, and in the furniture and interior market it rose to No. 1 in 2001, just four years after entering the business in 1997. In 2013, it became the first company in the furniture industry to join the 1 trillion won sales club, and just four years later, in 2017, it achieved sales of 2 trillion won. From No. 1 in kitchens to No. 1 in the furniture industry and No. 1 in interior remodeling, Hanssem has continuously created new future visions and new growth engines for the company whenever markets became saturated and change was needed.

These remarkable achievements were underpinned by the introduction of pioneering management systems ahead of their time. In 1999, Hanssem introduced an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system that integrated and managed its headquarters, factories, hundreds of distribution channels, and thousands of construction personnel electronically, realizing the '3-day delivery, 1-day installation' that had been a dream for the furniture industry. In addition, through the introduction of a construction seating system (building a nationwide, always-available construction network), a supply chain management (SCM/production management) system, and the development of an integrated after-sales service system, Hanssem was able to achieve cost reductions, innovations in quality, logistics, and design, and improved service. Today, 'Home Planner,' a 3D design system holding a database of floor plans for millions of households across Korea, shows customers the living space they dream of before their eyes at the same time as their consultation.

Building new solutions for the future living environment with an online interior platform

Marking its 50th anniversary, Hanssem has established a mid- to long-term roadmap to advance from the nation's strongest company in the living environment sector to the world's strongest company in this field by fully developing its digital home interior business. ▲First, it plans to achieve sales of 10 trillion won by combining digital technology and an online platform with its Rehaus business, based on the data and know-how about living environments it has accumulated over 50 years, and to establish a foundation for Global Hanssem's challenge. ▲Its next goal is to complete world-class competitiveness based on this successful domestic model and leap forward as Global Hanssem in the world market. ▲Building on this, Hanssem plans to create a business model that combines home appliance and IT technologies with its remodeling business, presenting new solutions for the future living environment. If Hanssem's past 50 years were based on its kitchen, furniture, interior, and building materials businesses, its grand aspiration for the next 50 years is to realize smart homes and smart cities and leap forward to become one of the world's top 10 companies.

Hanssem Chairman Kang Seung-soo said, "Over the past 50 years, Hanssem has worked to help transform customers' living environments into better places so they can lead happier lives," adding, "Over the next 50 years, we will realize our founding spirit of 'contributing to the advancement of humanity by improving living environments' through smart homes and smart cities."

▲ The first directly operated store in Daejo-dong



▲ Hanssem headquarters building in Sangam-dong


▲ VR model house


▲ Hanssem Kitchenbach Modern Lounge Collection


▲ Hanssem Rehaus Style Package 'Modern Brown'