Happynarae


Happynarae is one of the largest social enterprises in the world and the largest in South Korea. The Nobel Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus visited Happynarae and acclaimed it a "realization of revolutionary social enterprise that can help other social enterprises".

History

Its original company MRO Korea was a joint venture between W. W. Grainger group and SK group. MRO Korea increased its partners to 44 outside of SK group.
Currently, MRO Korea increased its partnership to be 44 outside of SK group. With the suggestion from group chairman Tae-Won-Chey, MRO Korea became a social enterprise in 2011. However, since MRO Korea was part of the SK conglomerate Chaebol, the government did not see Happynarae as a genuine social enterprise in 2012. After that failure, MRO Korea changed its name to be Happynarae and added more social contributions to the proposal, which includes full-profit invest and pro-bono activity on other social enterprises. In July 2014, Happynarae received a citation from president Park Geun-hye for the contribution it made for other social enterprises. The current president of company is Dae-Sung-Kang and 25% of its employees are from socially vulnerable class.

Social activity

Happynarae is a social enterprise that contributes to society through several ways, which can be categorized in six sections.

Business

Happynarae’s capital started with 80 billion won from SK Group, specifically SKI, SKT, SK C&C, SK Gas and SK Happiness Foundation. The two top share-holders are SKI and SKT.
Happynarae supplies maintenance, repair and operations to companies in South Korea and to SK group companies. In 2013, Happynarae established a subsidiary company in China. In the same year, it recorded annual sales of 200 billion won. It is still expanding its business across the globe and is investing its profit to other social enterprises.

Controversy

Happynarae was accused of forcing social enterprises to buy its anniversary set menu. Several informants claimed that Happynarae is exerting excessive power on partner companies. However, only one media outlet reported this controversy.