Hyundai Green Food Launches Care Food Specialty Brand 'Greeting'... Aiming for 100 Billion KRW in 5 Years

Providing Customized Healthy Meals Such as Low-Sugar and Calorie-Balanced Diets
Launching Dedicated Online Mall and Starting Subscription Service
Customers Can Choose Desired Meal Plans and Delivery Dates

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] Hyundai Green Food is set to actively expand its care food business. Following the recent launch of its ‘Smart Food Center’ and entry into the food manufacturing business, the company is now introducing ‘Greeting,’ a customized healthy meal brand that delivers directly to customers’ homes.

Hyundai Green Food, a comprehensive food company affiliated with Hyundai Department Store Group, announced on the 17th that it has launched the care food specialty brand ‘Greeting’ and will begin B2C (business-to-consumer) sales.

‘Greeting’ is a customized healthy meal brand designed for consumers who want low-sugar or calorie-balanced meals that provide the necessary daily nutrition while enjoying their food. The brand name ‘Greeting’ is a compound of ‘Great,’ meaning ‘magnificent,’ and ‘Eating,’ referring to food, symbolizing the pursuit of magnificent food.

Park Joo-yeon, Executive Director in charge of the Greeting business at Hyundai Green Food, explained, “‘Greeting’ can be seen as ‘healthcare food’ (comprehensive health meals) for people who are interested in and maintain their health regularly. We provide fresh food delivered directly to customers’ homes early the next morning after preparation.”

‘Greeting’ is characterized by controlling sugar or salt content in each meal while maintaining the taste of commercial foods. Many health meal products on the market simply reduce sauces like soy sauce or dressings, resulting in lower salt and sugar but bland taste. All ‘Greeting’ dishes use 71 types of proprietary sauces developed in-house, such as goji berry soy sauce, angelica rapeseed oil, and avocado oil dressing. These sauces exclude monosodium glutamate, flavoring agents, and caramel coloring, instead using broths made from vegetables or meat to maximize deep flavor, and no additional sugar is added.

Additionally, over 150 types of healthy ingredients rarely seen in Korea, such as peanut sprouts, barley shoots, Cudrania tricuspidata, and Jerusalem artichoke, known for their nutritional benefits, have been discovered and incorporated into every meal with at least one ingredient.

Leveraging its experience operating department store food halls and providing patient meals at Asan Medical Center and Ajou University Hospital, Hyundai Green Food developed 597 ‘Greeting side dish recipes.’ Using these, they created 72 types of healthy meal plans, including ‘low-sugar meals,’ ‘light meals’ mainly composed of salads, and ‘wellness meals’ with balanced nutrition. Each meal plan is designed with appropriate sodium content, calories, and the three essential nutrients (carbohydrates, protein, and fat) in ratios suited to their purpose.

Hyundai Green Food will officially start B2C sales with the opening of its dedicated online mall, ‘Greeting Mall.’ The mall will operate two sections: ‘Care Meals,’ a subscription service for healthy meal plans, and ‘Health Market,’ where customers can purchase convenient healthy meals, side dishes, health juices, sauces, and more.

Notably, ‘Care Meals’ will be offered as a subscription service. Customers can choose from three healthy meal plans?low-sugar, light, or wellness?and receive regular deliveries to their homes via courier. Customers can select menus, delivery dates, delivery methods (standard courier or early morning delivery), the number of meals per day, and the subscription duration.

‘Health Market’ allows customers to purchase healthy side dishes, nutritious porridges, soups, and soft foods individually according to their preferences. Hyundai Green Food plans to initially offer 89 items and expand to over 200 items within the year.

Prior to the ‘Greeting Mall’ launch, Hyundai Green Food introduced healthy meals through Amorepacific’s direct sales channels starting in February. Various salads and side dishes received positive responses from housewives, supplying an average of 3,000 healthy meals daily within a month.

Hyundai Green Food also plans to expand its B2B (business-to-business) operations by introducing a ‘Greeting exclusive corner’ applicable to corporate cafeterias within this year. Additionally, they are considering a ‘healthy meal delivery service’ for companies without cafeteria facilities.

The company’s active expansion into the care food business is driven by the rapid growth of the care food market. The market size is estimated to be around 2 trillion KRW this year, nearly four times larger than the 510.4 billion KRW recorded in 2011 (according to Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation).

Executive Director Park said, “With the expectation that by 2025, over 20% of the total population will be aged 65 or older, entering a super-aged society, and with increased life expectancy, preventive care through proper dietary habits has become crucial. Not only the elderly but also younger generations are showing interest in health management, so we expect the care food market to continue growing.”

Recognizing this trend early, Hyundai Green Food identified ‘care food’ as a next-generation growth engine five years ago and has been preparing the business since. Starting in 2016, they began developing soft foods and launched Korea’s first B2C soft food brand (Greeting Soft) the following year. In 2018, they selected about 80 experts from over 1,300 cooks and 700 nutritionists to establish the care food research institute ‘Greeting LAB.’

Moreover, Hyundai Green Food invested 83.3 billion KRW to establish the ‘Smart Food Center,’ expanding care food specialized production facilities, including soft food production equipment and a ‘sauce development lab’ dedicated to producing Greeting sauces. They also introduced essential equipment for HMR (home meal replacement) and meal kit production, such as ‘tunnel-type rapid chillers,’ ‘pre-processed vegetable packaging machines,’ and ‘vacuum packaging machines for meat.’

Hyundai Green Food plans to launch a comprehensive health management (healthcare) service using Greeting. As the first step, starting on the 18th, they will collaborate with ‘NOOM Korea,’ which operates a health management program used by 50 million people worldwide, to offer a healthcare service combining diet management and exercise therapy. Customers who purchase Greeting’s low-sugar meal plan will receive ‘one-on-one health coaching’ from NOOM Korea’s healthcare experts, including clinical nutritionists and health exercise managers, along with their meals.

Hyundai Green Food aims to achieve sales of 15 billion KRW in the first year of Greeting’s launch and grow sales to the 100 billion KRW range within five years.

Kim Hae-gon, Executive Director and Head of Strategic Planning at Hyundai Green Food, said, “To offer customized healthy meal plans, we established a multi-product small-quantity production system capable of producing 300 different menus daily at the Smart Food Center, which began operations earlier this month. Through the launch of ‘Greeting,’ we will further solidify our position as a leading company in Korea’s care food industry.”

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