Ready Meal Specialist 'Tastynine' Secures 6 Billion KRW Investment

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Saeng-hye] Tasty Nine, a home meal replacement (HMR) specialist company, announced on the 2nd that it has secured a cumulative investment of 8 billion KRW after recently receiving an investment worth 6 billion KRW.

Through this investor relations (IR) event, Tasty Nine explained that although investment funds exceeding four times the target amount were attracted, they ultimately partnered with Cresco Lake Partners and SV Investment.

Ahn Jeong-ho, CEO of private equity firm Cresco Lake Partners, stated, “We decided to invest after highly evaluating Tasty Nine’s competitiveness, which possesses differentiated planning capabilities and stable manufacturing facilities that can respond to the market trend changes led by fresh convenience foods in the existing F&B sector.”

Tasty Nine shows strength particularly in the ready meal category among HMR product lines. Ready meals, an evolved version of ‘meal kits’?which are packaged with prepped ingredients and seasonings?are meals that can be heated for about 5 to 10 minutes and eaten immediately. They are gaining attention from consumers seeking convenience and time savings, thereby expanding the market size. Especially with the recent spread of COVID-19 increasing time spent at home and demand for ‘untact (contactless)’ services, the online sales and delivery market for HMR is expected to experience rapid growth.

Holding over 180 varieties of diverse HMR convenience foods, Tasty Nine is present in premium offline channels such as Shinsegae, Hyundai, and Lotte Department Stores, as well as home shopping channels including Lotte Home Shopping, Home&Shopping, Gongyoung Home Shopping, and SK Stoa.

Online, through platforms like Market Kurly, Coupang Rocket Fresh, Emart SSG, Hello Nature, and GS Fresh, Tasty Nine is recognized for significantly contributing to the activation of the dawn delivery market with product planning specialized for early morning delivery.

Tasty Nine has secured all sales channels including online, offline, and home shopping, and plans to open its own shopping mall soon after completing the recent investment.

With rapid growth exceeding 100% annually, quarterly sales this year have already surpassed last year’s half-year sales, and it is expected to easily achieve this year’s sales target of 35 billion KRW. The company is also evaluated to have established a stable process after surpassing the break-even point last year.

Oh Tak-geun, director at SV Investment, said, “Tasty Nine is a company equipped with competitiveness capable of achieving high growth alongside the increase in single-person households, growth in the online food market, and dawn delivery market, which led us to decide to invest. Especially with the untact consumption market expected to grow significantly due to COVID-19, if they succeed in entering the home shopping market planned for this year, they are expected to become a new game changer in the HMR industry.”

Tasty Nine plans to carry out various activities for service growth through this large-scale investment, including ▲building an in-house ERP system that integrates planning, manufacturing, and distribution ▲opening and activating its own mall ▲developing trendy product lines that could not be quickly commercialized in existing distribution channels ▲expanding production capacity.

Hong Ju-yeol, CEO of Tasty Nine, expressed his ambition, saying, “Products sold through existing channels had some limitations in quickly reflecting trends because planning, manufacturing, and sales were conducted separately. We plan to provide a unique and unparalleled service to maximize our position as an early adopter and ‘lifestyle changer’ in the HMR industry.”

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