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Amid 15 Billion Won Unpaid Settlement Crisis, 'TeamFresh' Clears Out Gangnam Headquarters

[비즈한국] While dawn delivery agency TeamFresh remains unable to resolve its unpaid shipping fee crisis, movements indicating a withdrawal from its Gangnam headquarters building have been spotted. TeamFresh explained that the office relocation is due to the expiration of its lease, but declined to disclose the location of the new office.

Trucks leave loaded with waste, empty offices left with only records of disposed second-hand goods…

As a result of BizHankook's coverage, it has been confirmed that dawn delivery agency TeamFresh recently began clearing out its headquarters building in Gangnam, Seoul. While the corporate registry still lists the Gangnam-gu, Nonhyeon-dong address as its headquarters, the office space at this location is effectively cleared out.

On the 16th, several 1-ton trucks were parked in the parking lot of the TeamFresh Gangnam headquarters building. They were vehicles transporting waste collected from the office. After finishing morning operations, the trucks left the TeamFresh headquarters building fully loaded with waste. Workers met on-site stated that “the work is almost finished.”

TeamFresh’s Gangnam headquarters is a building with 6 basement levels and 7 floors above ground, with a total floor area of approximately 5,400㎡ (about 1,640 pyeong). TeamFresh had leased the entire building since 2022 and used it as its headquarters until recently, but all floors are now empty. While the ‘TeamFresh’ sign still hangs on the exterior wall, the internal office space has been emptied of all furniture and equipment. Unchecked mail was piled up at the 1st-floor lobby reception desk, and most office supplies had already been cleared out, leaving only traces behind.

It appears that TeamFresh sold most of its office supplies as second-hand goods. At the site, a list detailing the disposal unit prices for items such as desks, chairs, refrigerators, air purifiers, and TV monitors was discovered. There were also signs that some items, such as partitions, sofas, and coffee tables, had been transferred for free or discarded.

TeamFresh abruptly suspended its dawn delivery service in April. This was because the delayed injection of planned investment funds left them unable to pay the shipping fees owed to delivery drivers. It is reported that approximately 350 drivers have yet to receive their shipping fees from TeamFresh. They have not been paid for two months, specifically January and February 2025. The industry estimates the scale of the unpaid shipping fees to be around 15 billion won.

Although TeamFresh stated it would finalize its policy regarding the unpaid shipping fees by September and communicate it to the drivers, the issue remains unresolved as of mid-October (Related article: Will the 15 Billion Won Unpaid Shipping Fee Crisis for 'Preliminary Unicorn' TeamFresh Be Resolved in September?). On September 23, TeamFresh delivery drivers held a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Hall, announcing that they would collectively report the TeamFresh CEO to the Korea Fair Trade Commission.

“Not closing the business,” but new location remains ‘private’

TeamFresh was once considered the industry leader, commanding over 90% market share in the dawn delivery sector. Its annual revenue grew from 2.7 billion won in its founding year of 2018 to 230 billion won in 2022. In 2021, it was selected as a preliminary unicorn company, drawing attention as a representative success story among domestic logistics startups. Bolstered by this growth, TeamFresh closed its headquarters in Bangi-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, in 2022 and relocated to Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu.

However, the cooling investment market and a persistent deficit structure held the company back. Despite high revenue, profitability did not improve, and as the company relied on investment funds to maintain operations, it immediately faced a liquidity crisis once new funding stopped.

In April, TeamFresh announced that it would “resume dawn delivery services once the investment funds are paid,” but the situation has not changed much since then. The Gangnam headquarters, which symbolized the company’s expansion, has also shut its doors after three years.

Suspicions are mounting that TeamFresh is effectively in the process of shutting down, given that it has cleared out its headquarters. In response, TeamFresh stated, “There are no plans to close the business.” A TeamFresh official said, “We are relocating our office due to the expiration of the lease. The number of company personnel has also decreased significantly.” However, they did not answer questions regarding the location of the new office.