'Setak Tukgongdae' Washswat: Top-line Growth Has Stopped, But Cash is Flowing

Washswat, which operates the non-face-to-face laundry platform 'Setak Tukgongdae', is showing improved business fundamentals in its recently announced earnings. Passing the period of explosive top-line growth, it has now entered a stage of strengthening its inner workings by drastically reducing losses through strict 'profitability-focused management'. However, the halted sales growth is pointed out as a task that must be solved in order to increase its corporate valuation in the future.

Sales Growth Stalled for 3 Years

Washswat's sales grew steeply from approximately 13.2 billion won in 2021 to about 33.3 billion won in 2023. However, since 2024, growth has slowed, staying in the low 33 billion won range.

Such stagnation in sales growth can be a somewhat worrisome signal for startups or growth-stage companies. Especially compared to the explosive growth in 2021-2022, it clearly appears to have entered a stagnation phase. Various causes may have worked in combination, such as market saturation, intensifying competition, or stalled new user influx due to reduced marketing expenses to defend profitability, but it is hard to deny the fact that the growth engine has temporarily stopped based on current indicators.

[Source: Setak Tukgongdae Homepage]

Improving Fundamentals into a "Company That Knows How to Make Money"…Drastic Reduction in Deficit Every Year

Although top-line growth has stagnated, the positive aspect is the 'groundbreaking improvement of its profit structure'. After Washswat's operating loss peaked at about 16.6 billion won in 2022, the deficit has been dramatically reduced every year to the levels of 4.6 billion won in 2023, 1.2 billion won in 2024, and 800 million won in 2025.

It is not just the scale of the loss that has decreased. As of 2025, Washswat succeeded in turning its operating cash flow (OCF) to a positive (+) scale of about 2.6 billion won. Achieving this positive OCF deserves high praise in that it proved with actual cash flow that Washswat's fundamental improvement is not simply a manipulation of figures on the books, but a transformation into a substantial company that earns actual cash.

The Core of Loss Reduction: Halving Compensation Costs and Severe Labor Cost Diet

Behind such a dramatic loss reduction were efforts to enhance service quality and painstaking cost reduction efforts.

First is the sharp decrease in compensation costs. As a result of focusing on service quality improvement, Setak Tukgongdae achieved the result of cutting compensation expenditure nearly in half, from about 940 million won in 2023 to about 470 million won in 2025. Then there is the massive reduction in labor costs. The total salary of executives and employees, which amounted to 6.18 billion won in 2023 (including 260 million won for executives and 5.92 billion won for employees), was drastically reduced by more than 31% to about 4.26 billion won in 2025. Along with this, achieving process efficiency and cost reduction centered on smart factories, and starting to stably secure gross profit became the foundation for the deficit reduction.

Lowered Valuation, How Will It Rebuild Corporate Value?

Although it achieved remarkable results in terms of profitability, the stalled sales growth led to the painful result of a decline in corporate value. Washswat was recognized for a corporate value of nearly 150 billion won at the time of attracting investment in 2022, but its valuation significantly dropped to an estimated 50 billion won around the time of its 2024 investment attraction.

Given the current situation where sales growth has completely stopped, it does not seem easy to be recognized again for a corporate value of over 100 billion won in the future. There is also a cold perspective in some quarters that even the current valuation in the 50 billion won range might be an overvaluation.

Ultimately, Washswat's next task is clear. Based on successful cost control and turnaround to surplus, the attention of the industry and investors is focused on how it will newly prove and build its corporate value even amid stalled sales growth.