[Post-Corona, Convenience Foods Rise] Frozen Rice and Pizza That Melt Consumers' Hearts

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Pulmuone has focused its research and development (R&D) capabilities on frozen home meal replacements (HMR) to create the 'Three Major Innovations in Frozen HMR.' They have preserved ingredients for over a year without alteration while delivering restaurant-quality taste, and have established mass production facilities to support this.

Two to three years ago, Pulmuone launched a strategic project to commercialize frozen HMR, which is seen as a future food trend. As part of this, they first formed an innovation task force (TF) team and collaborated to develop new products that had not existed in the domestic market. The main focus was on frozen rice and frozen pizza. They concentrated on developing frozen rice and pizza, which were previously unavailable in the market. This led to the creation of 'Golden Grain 200℃ Fried Rice' and 'No-Edge & Crust Pizza.'

The domestic frozen rice market grew more than tenfold in six years, from 8.8 billion KRW in 2012 to 91.5 billion KRW last year. This growth is attributed to the increase in single-person households and the spread of the home meal replacement (HMR) trend.

Launched in August last year, the 'Golden Grain 200℃ Fried Rice' comes in two varieties: Pork & Scramble and Shrimp & Garlic. The Golden Grain fried rice is prepared in a professional style by stir-frying rice, eggs, and other ingredients in a wok with oil. A distinctive feature is the 'Rice Grain Egg Coating' technology, where fresh eggs are poured over the rice and stir-fried together to achieve a fluffy texture.

In the fiercely competitive frozen rice market with over 400 varieties competing on price, according to Nielsen data from October last year, Garlic & Shrimp held the number one market share, and Pork & Scramble ranked fifth. These products consistently remain among the top sellers in the frozen rice market, surpassing 2 million cumulative sales by February this year.

The No-Edge & Crust Pizza is Pulmuone's entry into the frozen pizza market, launched in early December last year. Pulmuone introduced the latest pizza manufacturing technologies from pizza-leading countries Italy and the United States and conducted two years of R&D. The No-Edge & Crust Pizza exceeded 1 million cumulative sales within two months of launch, and due to better-than-expected sales and positive customer feedback, the sales target for this year was revised from 15 billion KRW to 30 billion KRW.

The No-Edge Fully Topped line includes three varieties: Bacon Five Cheese, Pepperoni Combination, and Charcoal Grilled Bulgogi. The Crust line consists of two varieties: Cheese Crust Cream Cheese Super Deluxe and Gold Crust Bacon Five Cheese.

The Thin Skin Fully Filled Dumplings (Yalpi Mandu) were launched at the end of March last year and became the biggest hit in the frozen dumpling market that year. Within seven months of launch, they recorded over 10 million cumulative sales, changing the landscape of the frozen dumpling market. Pulmuone's market share in dumplings was in the 10% range and ranked fourth in 2018, but after the success of Yalpi Mandu, the share increased to 20.8% (as of last September), rising to second place.

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