TYM announces ESG as a driving force for the company

TYM is a mid-sized company that celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. The beginning was when the late Chairman In-deuk Kim founded Dongyang Corporation in 1951, which runs the film and trade business. In 1962, Fujian Corporation and Dongyang Corporation were merged, and the present Dongyang Corporation was born.

In 1973, he started operating a farm equipment factory and entered the agricultural machinery industry. Since the production of the power cultivator in 1976, it has left a strong mark in the agricultural machinery industry. In 1985, Korea first exported a 38-horsepower domestic tractor to Central and South America, exported a cultivator to Vietnam in 1988, and in 1990 produced 2 trillion combines, growing into a specialized agricultural machinery company. In 2000, it was the first in the agricultural machinery industry to receive the 50 million dollar export tower, showing its presence in the global market.

TYM made a major overhaul at the end of last year to prepare for the new 70 years. By changing the company name to TYM using the English abbreviation of Tong Yang C&T Corporation, he made clear his intention to focus on expanding the global market. It also contains a willingness to break away from the old frame of traditional agricultural machinery manufacturing, which has a name that has been used since its founding in 1951. The company logo was also changed by embodying the image of a tiger from Mount Paekdu. The company explained that it contained a firm determination to provide better services and products to customers around the world.

In December last year, TYM held a new brand declaration ceremony to share the meaning of this transformation with domestic and foreign employees and dealers around the world. The proclamation ceremony held online due to Corona 19 was watched by over 2,000 domestic and global dealers and consumers through live broadcasting. In order to expand customers to the global market, an Internet homepage was also newly established. It has also developed a “TYM toolkit” for TYM salespeople around the world to do business digitally. It is configured so that sales managers and overseas dealers can provide a variety of information on TYM products and services to consumers through a tablet PC in 3D images.

The big pillar of the new change is ESG management. Earlier this year, TYM declared the first ESG management in the agricultural machinery industry. The ESG Committee and Secretariat to plan and implement this have been established in-house. It expresses the willingness to introduce ESG information into management first, prior to 2030, when all listed companies in the securities market are obligated to disclose ESG information.

TYM has been putting into practice with an interest in sustainable growth. The company has already responded with partner companies to minimize waste and waste oil generated when manufacturing agricultural machinery, and has continuously received environmental impact assessments in accordance with international standards.

From this year onwards, we are practicing ESG management concretely. To protect the environment, TYM completely banned the use of disposable items such as paper cups. Tumblers and eco bags were provided to all employees to reduce the use of paper cups and plastic bags. Sales sites have also started using tablet PCs, not paper catalogs, and are replacing lighting at all business sites with LEDs (light-emitting diodes).

TYM, which aims to become a social enterprise, is striving to improve employee welfare and expand symbiotic relations with business partners. The disaster control tower was built to prepare for large-scale accidents and natural disasters that could occur suddenly, and to support company-wide support. In addition, it is carrying out various social contribution activities from domestic to overseas, such as free donation of tractors for returning farming youth, welfare support for low-income youth, and donations to the Van Fleet Foundation in the US. For reference, in order to keep the governance structure transparent, internal decision-making bodies such as the Management Committee, Compliance Committee, and Personnel Committee have been operating since last year. Each committee collects the opinions of executives and staff members, proposes it as the committee's agenda, and shares the final decided agenda with the executives and employees to lead a more transparent decision-making process.

TYM set its goal to receive A or higher in ESG evaluation by KCGS (Korea Corporate Governance Service) this year. This is within 12% of the ESG rankings of listed companies. The company's plan is to become an ESG global company that can be recognized in the world by 2030 after becoming the first medium-sized company to become an ESG advanced enterprise by 2025.

It is also focusing on the development of smart agricultural machinery to prepare food for the future. TYM ICT, established at the end of last year, has completed preparations for the development of telematics-based autonomous farming machines step by step. Self-driving agricultural machinery tests have been conducted since last year, and self-driving tractors and rice transplanters are expected to be launched in earnest from the end of this year.

Exports are also continuing smoothly. It has completed a contract to supply a new 2021 tractor. It plans to export more than 20,000 tractors alone this year to the world this year.

In the domestic market, a new pricing policy was implemented. It is true that the price was not transparently disclosed in the domestic agricultural machinery market, so farmers had difficulty in purchasing. Last year, TYM received a favorable response from farmers by introducing an economical tractor that lowered the price with only essential functions for small and medium tractors. This year, the price policy that encourages consumers to purchase at a reasonable price by removing the price bubble and disclosing transparent prices has been expanded to all models.

This article was written as news first published by the Korean Economy on February 24, 2021.