KT&G's Strong Global Cigarette Business Tows Q1 Revenue and Operating Profit Growth

– Q1 consolidated revenue stands at 1.491 Trillion KRW, operating profit at 285.6 billion KRW, 15.4% and 20.7% YoY growth respectively

– 'Triple Growth' of operating profit, sales volume, and revenue in the global cigarette business, accelerates core business profitability-based growth

SEOUL, South Korea, May 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- On the 8^th, KT&G(KRX: 033780) hosted an earnings call, announcing results for the first quarter of 2025.

KT&G reported a consolidated revenue of 1.491 trillion KRW and consolidated operating profit of 285.6 billion KRW, a year-on-year growth of 15.4% and 20.7% respectively. Revenue and operating profit both showed double-digit growth, while profit growth surpassed that of revenue, demonstrating the results of profitability-focused business management. 

In KT&G's main business, the cigarette business, revenue grew 15.3% YoY reaching 988 billion KRW and operating profit grew 22.4% reaching 252.9 billion KRW, resulting from the high growth of the global business. Price hikes and sales volume growth in major markets led to the global cigarette business's "triple growth" in operating profit, sales volume, and revenue for four consecutive quarters. The global business's operating profit soared with 312.5% growth and revenue rose 53.9% YoY to record 449.1 billion KRW, marking a new historic high in quarterly performance. 

The achievements resulted from CEO Kyung-man Bang's fully-local value chain strategy that was implemented since his inauguration last year. In addition, local infrastructure expansion such as the completion of the new factory in Kazakhstan last April, and the upcoming completion of the new Indonesian factory next year is expected to accelerate the growth of the global business even further.

The NGP business, with its flagship brand "lil Hybrid", saw a 6.5% YoY revenue growth in the Korean market. The Health Functional Foods (HFF) division, managed by KGC (Korea Ginseng Corporation), reported revenue growth of 1.9% YoY despite slowdown of the domestic economy owing to Korean holiday promotions and growth in major global markets. As the performance of development projects were reflected, the real estate division contributed to profitability improvements of the corporation, with revenue and operating profit reaching 100.4 billion KRW and 10.4 billion KRW.

Previously, KT&G announced shareholder return programs totaling 3.7 trillion KRW between 2024 and 2027 that includes cash dividends as well as stock repurchasing and cancellation of 20% or more of outstanding shares. Last year, KT&G made a total cash return of 1.1 trillion KRW, reaching 100% total shareholder return, while cancelling treasury shares equivalent to 6.3% of outstanding shares. In 2025, KT&G continues to implement its shareholder value improvement strategy, top-tier in the Korean market, and pursuing value-up programs in greater scale; in the first quarter, KT&G has completed the cancellation of treasury stocks amounting to 2.5% of outstanding shares worth approximately 360 billion KRW.

A KT&G spokesperson stated that "despite hostile business conditions such as a sharp rise in foreign exchange rates and a decelerating domestic economy, the company saw a mutual growth of revenue and operating profit by focusing on enhancing competitiveness of the core business profitability," further commenting that "the company will secure future growth momentum through increased global competitiveness and an expansion of business scope from cigarettes to 'Modern Products.'"

– Q1 consolidated revenue stands at 1.491 Trillion KRW, operating profit at 285.6 billion KRW, 15.4% and 20.7% YoY growth respectively

– 'Triple Growth' of operating profit, sales volume, and revenue in the global cigarette business, accelerates core business profitability-based growth

SEOUL, South Korea, May 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- On the 8^th, KT&G(KRX: 033780) hosted an earnings call, announcing results for the first quarter of 2025.

KT&G reported a consolidated revenue of 1.491 trillion KRW and consolidated operating profit of 285.6 billion KRW, a year-on-year growth of 15.4% and 20.7% respectively. Revenue and operating profit both showed double-digit growth, while profit growth surpassed that of revenue, demonstrating the results of profitability-focused business management. 

In KT&G's main business, the cigarette business, revenue grew 15.3% YoY reaching 988 billion KRW and operating profit grew 22.4% reaching 252.9 billion KRW, resulting from the high growth of the global business. Price hikes and sales volume growth in major markets led to the global cigarette business's "triple growth" in operating profit, sales volume, and revenue for four consecutive quarters. The global business's operating profit soared with 312.5% growth and revenue rose 53.9% YoY to record 449.1 billion KRW, marking a new historic high in quarterly performance. 

The achievements resulted from CEO Kyung-man Bang's fully-local value chain strategy that was implemented since his inauguration last year. In addition, local infrastructure expansion such as the completion of the new factory in Kazakhstan last April, and the upcoming completion of the new Indonesian factory next year is expected to accelerate the growth of the global business even further.

The NGP business, with its flagship brand "lil Hybrid", saw a 6.5% YoY revenue growth in the Korean market. The Health Functional Foods (HFF) division, managed by KGC (Korea Ginseng Corporation), reported revenue growth of 1.9% YoY despite slowdown of the domestic economy owing to Korean holiday promotions and growth in major global markets. As the performance of development projects were reflected, the real estate division contributed to profitability improvements of the corporation, with revenue and operating profit reaching 100.4 billion KRW and 10.4 billion KRW.

Previously, KT&G announced shareholder return programs totaling 3.7 trillion KRW between 2024 and 2027 that includes cash dividends as well as stock repurchasing and cancellation of 20% or more of outstanding shares. Last year, KT&G made a total cash return of 1.1 trillion KRW, reaching 100% total shareholder return, while cancelling treasury shares equivalent to 6.3% of outstanding shares. In 2025, KT&G continues to implement its shareholder value improvement strategy, top-tier in the Korean market, and pursuing value-up programs in greater scale; in the first quarter, KT&G has completed the cancellation of treasury stocks amounting to 2.5% of outstanding shares worth approximately 360 billion KRW.

A KT&G spokesperson stated that "despite hostile business conditions such as a sharp rise in foreign exchange rates and a decelerating domestic economy, the company saw a mutual growth of revenue and operating profit by focusing on enhancing competitiveness of the core business profitability," further commenting that "the company will secure future growth momentum through increased global competitiveness and an expansion of business scope from cigarettes to 'Modern Products.'"

** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **

KT&G's Strong Global Cigarette Business Tows Q1 Revenue and Operating Profit Growth

KT&G's Strong Global Cigarette Business Tows Q1 Revenue and Operating Profit Growth

• Innovative technologies enable retailers to implement intelligent stores at scale to deliver smarter, more responsive shopping experiences
• Industry partners to display production-ready AI solutions for loss prevention, digital twins, AI agents, customer analytics, and more

SAN JOSE, Calif. and NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Retail's Big Show -- Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI), a Total IT Solution Provider for AI/ML, HPC, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge, today announced collaboration with technology partners for AI-powered intelligent in-store retail solutions designed to meet increasing customer expectations with scalability, improved productivity and increased profitability.

"AI is reshaping shopping experiences, enabling real-time analysis of video and other data to give retailers actionable insights to optimizing staff efficiency, reducing shrinkage, increasing profits, and avoiding stock-outs," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "By combining Supermicro's complete and scalable AI platforms with NVIDIA RTX PRO accelerated computing solutions, we're enabling retailers to build intelligent stores that maximize the benefits of AI-driven applications."

According to the latest NVIDIA State of AI in Retail & CPG report, 89% of respondents reported that AI is helping to increase annual revenue, while 95% said it is helping decrease annual costs, highlighting the measurable business impact retailers are already achieving because of AI¹.

For more information, please visit https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/edge/servers

Supermicro Complete and Scalable Edge AI Infrastructure

Retail-centric AI applications require sub-second responsiveness which is only possible, at scale, if data is processed directly at the edge. Supermicro's Edge AI infrastructure enables the deployment of solutions in distributed environments, such as intelligent retail stores and supply chains, to provide a complete solution.

Deploying at the edge presents a myriad of unique challenges in comparison to the data center. Supermicro's broad Edge AI portfolio of products helps customers and partners overcome these challenges while striking the right balance between performance and ROI.

For deployments in harsh environments where conditioned space is not available, the fanless E103 series of products bring AI processing power where it couldn't go before. Supermicro also offers a fanned small form factor E300 series systems with AI capabilities.

When there is a demanding AI workload at the edge, customers and partners can turn to numerous systems capable of holding the latest discrete GPUs for AI acceleration. Ranging from 1U short-depth to larger 4U form factors, solutions can be right-sized to meet the customer's needs by enabling the latest generation of NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell series.

Supermicro Intelligent Store Partners

Supermicro is collaborating with ecosystem partners including Everseen, Kinetic Vision, ALLSIDES, LiveX, WobotAI, and Aible, to create intelligent stores that positively impact day-to-day retail operations as well as longer term supply chain management.

• Everseen's Evercheck solution uses Vision AI to help reduce shrink and improve staff productivity and customer experiences. Built on the Everseen Vision AI platform, Evercheck detects, and deters recovery of unwanted behaviors at checkout, helping retailers recover losses and streamline front-of-store operations.

"Everseen has spent years working alongside some of the world's largest retailers, understanding the realities of the store floor and solving loss challenges where they actually happen," said Joe White, CEO of Everseen. "By partnering with Supermicro and leveraging NVIDIA-accelerated computing, Evercheck delivers real-time computer vision at the edge - transforming store activity into intelligence retailers can act on immediately."

• Wobot AI, focused on building Video AI Agents for the physical world, will be demonstrating how the cameras retailers already own can be turned into systems that continuously observe, learn, and produce usable insight. By converting ordinary CCTV infrastructure into autonomous agents that recognize patterns, identify friction, and surface decisions, Wobot's AI Agents enable retailers to improve day-to-day operations with practical and measurable outcomes.

"By working with Supermicro and NVIDIA at the edge, we're able to deploy Video AI Agents in a way that's scalable, reliable, and focused on real-time operational insight—not experimentation," said Will Kelso, President, Revenue & Growth at Wobot AI.

• LiveX AI - "Retail is entering an era where AI agents become the default interaction layer between brands and customers," said Jerry Li, Co-Founder and CEO of LiveX AI. "With NVIDIA's accelerated AI and Supermicro's edge infrastructure, we can deploy a helpful, human-like AI agent directly in physical spaces—such as kiosks or holograms—bringing the speed, intelligence, and continuity of digital experiences into brick-and-mortar environments. This collaboration makes AI agents usable, in real time, where customers actually are."

• • Kinetic Vision and ALLSIDES are bundling their expertise for a True Digital Twin solution designed to develop, test, and optimize supply chain processes, checkout stations, and other complex systems.

"The combination of Supermicro's high reliability optimized infrastructure and NVIDIA's accelerated computing stack gives Kinetic Vision the foundation to innovate at speed. Together, we are helping retailers move from experimentation to production-ready AI solutions that drive measurable operational and customer experience gains," says Jeremy Jarratt, Kinetic Vision CEO.

Franz Tschimben, CEO at ALLSIDES, adds: "Building on the combined strengths of NVIDIA and Supermicro, we deliver a high-fidelity 3D digital twin data layer for AI training that enables retailers to power applications across the entire retail value chain — from training robots with physical AI, to production and production planning, virtual store layouts and consumer feedback systems, and e-commerce integrations — helping drive higher conversion rates, faster decision-making, and greater operational efficiency."

• Supermicro will also feature Superb AI's retail-focused VSS solution, combining Superb AI's proprietary VLM with NVIDIA AI Blueprint components to enable subjective reasoning capabilities, natural-language search, automated incident summarization, and customer behavior insights across store camera networks.
• Aible will highlight its automated agent solution, which analyzes vast amounts of data across millions of patterns to explain changes in retail KPIs, such as the average purchase amount or number of purchases. Aible will also demonstrate how the latest NVIDIA Retail blueprints can be incorporated into agentic solutions that automatically customize customer experiences and optimize retail operations at scale.

Arijit Sengupta, CEO of Aible, adds, "Today's market and labor conditions are constantly changing. Only autonomous agents can understand and adjust to these ever-changing patterns of customer behavior, inventory costs and supply, and labor access at scale. Working with NVIDIA and Supermicro, Aible brings autonomous agents subject to business user review to the retail edge."

These intelligent retail solutions will be demonstrated by Supermicro and its partners at NRF: Retail's Big Show in New York City from January 11-13. To learn more about AI-powered retail applications or Supermicro's AI Infrastructure solutions, visit Supermicro booth #5281 and attend its speaking session featuring PepsiCo and Kinetic Vision. For more details, please visit www.supermicro.com/NRF

¹Source: "NVIDIA State of AI in Retail and CPG" 2026

About Super Micro Computer, Inc.

Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI) is a global leader in Application-Optimized Total IT Solutions. Founded and operating in San Jose, California, Supermicro is committed to delivering first to market innovation for Enterprise, Cloud, AI, and 5G Telco/Edge IT Infrastructure. We are a Total IT Solutions provider with server, AI, storage, IoT, switch systems, software, and support services. Supermicro's motherboard, power, and chassis design expertise further enables our development and production, enabling next generation innovation from cloud to edge for our global customers. Our products are designed and manufactured in-house (in the US, Asia, and the Netherlands), leveraging global operations for scale and efficiency and optimized to improve TCO and reduce environmental impact (Green Computing). The award-winning portfolio of Server Building Block Solutions® allows customers to optimize for their exact workload and application by selecting from a broad family of systems built from our flexible and reusable building blocks that support a comprehensive set of form factors, processors, memory, GPUs, storage, networking, power, and cooling solutions (air-conditioned, free air cooling or liquid cooling).

Supermicro, Server Building Block Solutions, and We Keep IT Green are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Super Micro Computer, Inc.

All other brands, names, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

 

• Innovative technologies enable retailers to implement intelligent stores at scale to deliver smarter, more responsive shopping experiences
• Industry partners to display production-ready AI solutions for loss prevention, digital twins, AI agents, customer analytics, and more

SAN JOSE, Calif. and NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Retail's Big Show -- Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI), a Total IT Solution Provider for AI/ML, HPC, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge, today announced collaboration with technology partners for AI-powered intelligent in-store retail solutions designed to meet increasing customer expectations with scalability, improved productivity and increased profitability.

"AI is reshaping shopping experiences, enabling real-time analysis of video and other data to give retailers actionable insights to optimizing staff efficiency, reducing shrinkage, increasing profits, and avoiding stock-outs," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "By combining Supermicro's complete and scalable AI platforms with NVIDIA RTX PRO accelerated computing solutions, we're enabling retailers to build intelligent stores that maximize the benefits of AI-driven applications."

According to the latest NVIDIA State of AI in Retail & CPG report, 89% of respondents reported that AI is helping to increase annual revenue, while 95% said it is helping decrease annual costs, highlighting the measurable business impact retailers are already achieving because of AI¹.

For more information, please visit https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/edge/servers

Supermicro Complete and Scalable Edge AI Infrastructure

Retail-centric AI applications require sub-second responsiveness which is only possible, at scale, if data is processed directly at the edge. Supermicro's Edge AI infrastructure enables the deployment of solutions in distributed environments, such as intelligent retail stores and supply chains, to provide a complete solution.

Deploying at the edge presents a myriad of unique challenges in comparison to the data center. Supermicro's broad Edge AI portfolio of products helps customers and partners overcome these challenges while striking the right balance between performance and ROI.

For deployments in harsh environments where conditioned space is not available, the fanless E103 series of products bring AI processing power where it couldn't go before. Supermicro also offers a fanned small form factor E300 series systems with AI capabilities.

When there is a demanding AI workload at the edge, customers and partners can turn to numerous systems capable of holding the latest discrete GPUs for AI acceleration. Ranging from 1U short-depth to larger 4U form factors, solutions can be right-sized to meet the customer's needs by enabling the latest generation of NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell series.

Supermicro Intelligent Store Partners

Supermicro is collaborating with ecosystem partners including Everseen, Kinetic Vision, ALLSIDES, LiveX, WobotAI, and Aible, to create intelligent stores that positively impact day-to-day retail operations as well as longer term supply chain management.

• Everseen's Evercheck solution uses Vision AI to help reduce shrink and improve staff productivity and customer experiences. Built on the Everseen Vision AI platform, Evercheck detects, and deters recovery of unwanted behaviors at checkout, helping retailers recover losses and streamline front-of-store operations.

"Everseen has spent years working alongside some of the world's largest retailers, understanding the realities of the store floor and solving loss challenges where they actually happen," said Joe White, CEO of Everseen. "By partnering with Supermicro and leveraging NVIDIA-accelerated computing, Evercheck delivers real-time computer vision at the edge - transforming store activity into intelligence retailers can act on immediately."

• Wobot AI, focused on building Video AI Agents for the physical world, will be demonstrating how the cameras retailers already own can be turned into systems that continuously observe, learn, and produce usable insight. By converting ordinary CCTV infrastructure into autonomous agents that recognize patterns, identify friction, and surface decisions, Wobot's AI Agents enable retailers to improve day-to-day operations with practical and measurable outcomes.

"By working with Supermicro and NVIDIA at the edge, we're able to deploy Video AI Agents in a way that's scalable, reliable, and focused on real-time operational insight—not experimentation," said Will Kelso, President, Revenue & Growth at Wobot AI.

• LiveX AI - "Retail is entering an era where AI agents become the default interaction layer between brands and customers," said Jerry Li, Co-Founder and CEO of LiveX AI. "With NVIDIA's accelerated AI and Supermicro's edge infrastructure, we can deploy a helpful, human-like AI agent directly in physical spaces—such as kiosks or holograms—bringing the speed, intelligence, and continuity of digital experiences into brick-and-mortar environments. This collaboration makes AI agents usable, in real time, where customers actually are."

• • Kinetic Vision and ALLSIDES are bundling their expertise for a True Digital Twin solution designed to develop, test, and optimize supply chain processes, checkout stations, and other complex systems.

"The combination of Supermicro's high reliability optimized infrastructure and NVIDIA's accelerated computing stack gives Kinetic Vision the foundation to innovate at speed. Together, we are helping retailers move from experimentation to production-ready AI solutions that drive measurable operational and customer experience gains," says Jeremy Jarratt, Kinetic Vision CEO.

Franz Tschimben, CEO at ALLSIDES, adds: "Building on the combined strengths of NVIDIA and Supermicro, we deliver a high-fidelity 3D digital twin data layer for AI training that enables retailers to power applications across the entire retail value chain — from training robots with physical AI, to production and production planning, virtual store layouts and consumer feedback systems, and e-commerce integrations — helping drive higher conversion rates, faster decision-making, and greater operational efficiency."

• Supermicro will also feature Superb AI's retail-focused VSS solution, combining Superb AI's proprietary VLM with NVIDIA AI Blueprint components to enable subjective reasoning capabilities, natural-language search, automated incident summarization, and customer behavior insights across store camera networks.
• Aible will highlight its automated agent solution, which analyzes vast amounts of data across millions of patterns to explain changes in retail KPIs, such as the average purchase amount or number of purchases. Aible will also demonstrate how the latest NVIDIA Retail blueprints can be incorporated into agentic solutions that automatically customize customer experiences and optimize retail operations at scale.

Arijit Sengupta, CEO of Aible, adds, "Today's market and labor conditions are constantly changing. Only autonomous agents can understand and adjust to these ever-changing patterns of customer behavior, inventory costs and supply, and labor access at scale. Working with NVIDIA and Supermicro, Aible brings autonomous agents subject to business user review to the retail edge."

These intelligent retail solutions will be demonstrated by Supermicro and its partners at NRF: Retail's Big Show in New York City from January 11-13. To learn more about AI-powered retail applications or Supermicro's AI Infrastructure solutions, visit Supermicro booth #5281 and attend its speaking session featuring PepsiCo and Kinetic Vision. For more details, please visit www.supermicro.com/NRF

¹Source: "NVIDIA State of AI in Retail and CPG" 2026

About Super Micro Computer, Inc.

Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI) is a global leader in Application-Optimized Total IT Solutions. Founded and operating in San Jose, California, Supermicro is committed to delivering first to market innovation for Enterprise, Cloud, AI, and 5G Telco/Edge IT Infrastructure. We are a Total IT Solutions provider with server, AI, storage, IoT, switch systems, software, and support services. Supermicro's motherboard, power, and chassis design expertise further enables our development and production, enabling next generation innovation from cloud to edge for our global customers. Our products are designed and manufactured in-house (in the US, Asia, and the Netherlands), leveraging global operations for scale and efficiency and optimized to improve TCO and reduce environmental impact (Green Computing). The award-winning portfolio of Server Building Block Solutions® allows customers to optimize for their exact workload and application by selecting from a broad family of systems built from our flexible and reusable building blocks that support a comprehensive set of form factors, processors, memory, GPUs, storage, networking, power, and cooling solutions (air-conditioned, free air cooling or liquid cooling).

Supermicro, Server Building Block Solutions, and We Keep IT Green are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Super Micro Computer, Inc.

All other brands, names, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

 

** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **

Supermicro Announces Intelligent In-Store Retail Solutions in Collaboration with a Broad Range of Industry Partners