KT said on Sunday it is running a shared-growth project for young self-employed business owners called 'Yiroun Store' jointly with its brand for people in their 20s, 'Y', and the small business growth platform Sajangiji (Hiorder).

Yiroun Store is a programme that provides young artists with opportunities to create work based on real stores, while offering young self-employed business owners integrated support for branding and marketing.

Participating Y artists produce customised artwork that reflects each store's signature menu and concept. The completed designs are used for promotional materials such as posters, menu cards and social media images.

KT provides marketing and promotional support worth about 2 million won per store, in addition to the design collaboration. Participating stores also receive promotional support through the Ybox app and KT Y's official social media channels, as well as support such as running a 'Dinner Queen' trial group.

KT said it worked with 16 young-run stores last year with 7 Y artists. It plans to expand Yiroun Store with the aim of supporting a cumulative 100 young-run stores by this year.

KT is recruiting stores to participate in the third group of Yiroun Store for the first quarter of this year until next month on March 13. Young self-employed business owners aged 20 to 39 who started their businesses within the past 3 years can apply through the Sajangiji app. The recruitment period runs until March 13, and selected stores will receive the programme between April 1 and June 30.

Hee-geun Kwon (권희근), head of KT's Marketing Innovation Division, said, "Yiroun Store is a shared-growth model that creates new value by bringing together the creativity of young artists and young self-employed stores." He added, "We will continue to expand support programmes that help young people through KT Y and Sajangiji."