While bhc chicken has risen to No. 1 in the industry and settled down on the chicken throne, controversy surrounding bhc group chairman Park Hyeon-jong and old disputes with BBQ remain a headache.
According to the industry on the 19th, sales of bhc chicken last year were 507.5 billion won on an individual basis, surpassing Kyochon Chicken (498.9 billion won), which maintained the No. 1 spot in the industry.
bhc chicken has steadily grown at an average annual rate of more than 20%, reaching 300 billion won in sales in 2019, 400 billion won in 2020, and exceeding 500 billion won in 2022.
As such, bhc chicken has risen to No. 1 in the industry and is considered a chicken powerhouse, but it seems to be suffering from numerous tasks that have not yet been resolved.
The conflict between bhc chicken and BBQ that started in 2013 continues to appeal and the never-ending chicken war continues.
Previously, bhc was a subsidiary of BBQ, acquired and operated by BBQ in 2004. Later, in 2013, when BBQ sold bhc to CVCI, an American private equity fund, to raise funds for overseas expansion, CVCI refused to pay the balance of 10 billion won, arguing that BBQ had inflated the number of bhc stores and sold the contract.
BBQ believed that bhc chairman Park Hyeon-jong, who led the sale as a representative of BBQ’s global business, was responsible for the damages, and filed a lawsuit against Chairman Park for damages of 7.1 billion won. When Chairman Park Hyeon-jong moved to CVCI and took the seat of bhc CEO, BBQ had no person in charge or data to explain the dispute with CVCI.
Although BBQ’s claim was not accepted in the first trial of the lawsuit for damages, the second trial ruled that bhc should compensate BBQ for 2.8 billion won.
In fact, in the appeal trial of the damages claim filed by BBQ against bhc in January, the 18th Civil Division of the Seoul High Court found that Hyun-Jong Park, chairman of bhc, was in charge of negotiations on the sale as a director of BBQ, and was entrusted with the drafting of the stock purchase contract. Therefore, despite the duty to faithfully handle it, it was judged that it had violated the duty of care by committing a negligence, and was generally involved in the process of concluding the stock purchase contract in this case, including continuing contact and negotiations with CVCI.
In particular, Chairman Park Hyeon-jong reviews the draft of the stock purchase agreement written in English and requests translation of the draft, or through the process of collecting and reviewing the contents to be included in the case disclosure list from each department of bhc through the same department staff, the case disclosure list I saw that he played a key role in making the list, such as completing the
Despite this ruling, bhc denied the second trial verdict.
bhc argued, “In this appeals court ruling, it was judged that Chairman Park Hyun-jong did not appear to have supervised the due diligence process on bhc in the stock purchase contract (bhc trading) or was involved in the preparation of specific details in the list of affiliates.” .
In addition to this, there have been lawsuits such as unilateral termination of ‘product supply contract’ and ‘logistics service contract’, and ‘trade secret infringement’.
The atmosphere in the industry is that the legal battle that has been going on for 10 years surrounding not only the chairman of the group company but also the entire group is enough to negatively affect the image of bhc chicken.
An industry insider said, “It is important to be number one in the industry through sales, but it is also important to resolve these legal issues surrounding the company as a whole and the executives, including the chairman.” A negative image is inevitable,” he said.
[ 경기신문 = 이지민 기자 ]
