Hyundai Green Food Launches Smart Food Center... Expanding from Catering to B2C

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Hyundai Green Food has begun full-scale operations of its 'Smart Food Center,' into which it invested 83.3 billion KRW, and is entering the food manufacturing business. The company plans to enhance the competitiveness of its existing group catering and food material distribution businesses while expanding its business scope to B2C (business-to-consumer) transactions.

Hyundai Green Food, a comprehensive food company affiliated with Hyundai Department Store Group, announced on the 4th that it has started full-scale operations of the 'Smart Food Center' in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do. The 'Smart Food Center' is Hyundai Green Food's first food manufacturing facility (two floors) with a total floor area of 20,000㎡ (approximately 6,050 pyeong).

The 'Smart Food Center' is characterized by applying a 'hybrid factory system' where both B2B and B2C product production are carried out in a single factory for the first time in the group catering industry. Typically, food manufacturing plants operate separate facilities for B2B (business-to-business) and B2C product manufacturing. The company explained, "To introduce the advanced 'hybrid factory system,' we increased the investment amount by about 10% from the original plan of 76.1 billion KRW."

The hybrid factory system allows alternating between multi-product small-quantity production and single-product large-quantity production systems, enabling the daily average production of about 50 tons (approximately 200,000 servings) of 300 types of finished products and semi-prepared foods for both B2B and B2C. The total number of producible items is over 1,000, the highest in the group catering industry, which is about 3 to 10 times higher than the industry average of 100 to 250 items. The facility is equipped to freely adjust the production items and quantities of B2B and B2C products according to orders, capable of both large and small volume production.

Additionally, the manufacturing process from food material receipt to product shipment is operated as a one-stop system. For B2C finished products, there are five stages: 'receipt, trimming (preprocessing), cooking, packaging, inspection and shipment.' For B2B products for group catering, only the 'cooking' and 'packaging' stages among the five processes apply B2B-dedicated equipment. To achieve the goal of 'zero foreign substance contamination,' the movement paths of food materials between processes have been significantly reduced.

State-of-the-art equipment and technologies have also been introduced. These include a 'vegetable automatic washer' that uses ultrasound to clean foreign substances such as heavy metals and pesticide residues, an 'automatic direct-fire cooking facility' that maintains an appropriate temperature to enhance the taste and quality of food, and a 'vacuum marinated meat mixer' that marinates meat under vacuum conditions. Furthermore, for the first time in the group catering industry, an 'optical sorter' capable of detecting microscopic metal particles or hair invisible to the naked eye using optical cameras has been introduced.

Hyundai Green Food plans to actively engage in B2C and B2B food manufacturing businesses through the operation of the 'Smart Food Center.' First, to target the B2C market, it will develop and produce high value-added products such as premium home meal replacements (HMR). Of the producible items (over 1,000 types) at the 'Smart Food Center,' 70% will be filled with B2C products such as fully cooked HMR and semi-prepared meal kits.

Moreover, the company plans to ramp up production of softened food products, which it first developed domestically in 2017. A dedicated production line for the softened food brand 'Greeting Soft' has been established. Softened food is a representative care food product that maintains the taste and form of regular food but is made much softer to facilitate chewing and swallowing.

In addition, the B2B sector will begin producing preprocessed (CK) products for group catering and specialized products for the food material business. Hyundai Green Food expects that B2B product manufacturing will simplify cooking tasks and improve efficiency in response to changes in the work environment such as the implementation of the 52-hour workweek system and work-life balance culture. The latest bakery equipment is also installed to upgrade the competitiveness of the hotel concession business, which Hyundai Green Food has been focusing on since last year.

Kim Hae-gon, Executive Director of Strategic Planning at Hyundai Green Food, said, "We plan to expand the number of producible items to about 1,200 by the first half of next year through product development and stabilization of the production process," adding, "Through the Smart Food Center, we will not only enhance the competitiveness of existing businesses but also broaden our position as a B2C food manufacturing company."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.