[Untact SMEs] Quick and Easy with Meal Kits... Smart Home Dining Lifestyle

Small Giant Company 'FreshEasy'
Started with 'Cooking as Easy as Ramen'
Challenges in Market Expansion Centered on Large Corporations
Overcame by Actively Targeting Online Market
Synergy from Government Policy Fund Support
Rapid Growth as a Prospective Unicorn Company

There are competitive small and strong enterprises that can survive in the untact economy and continue to grow sustainably. These companies are accelerating their response to the post-COVID era by developing untact business models and pioneering new markets. Timely and swift provision of policy funds played a significant role in the scale-up of these companies. We will examine successful cases of untact SMEs discovered and supported through a system involving policy financial institutions in a total of three installments.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] 'Meal kits' are products that allow consumers to enjoy menus sold at dining establishments easily prepared at home. The term combines Meal and Kit, characterized by the inclusion of ingredients, seasonings, and cooking instructions together. By adding pre-prepared ingredients and the appropriate amount of seasoning and following the specified manual, consumers can conveniently enjoy delicious meals, making meal kits highly popular.

Amid the rapid growth of the related industry, the meal kit strong small enterprise 'Fresh Easy' located in Namdong Industrial Complex, Incheon, is gaining attention. This company has established itself in the market with a variety of menus, strict quality control, and a rapid delivery system, and is evaluated as a prospective unicorn company with a corporate value exceeding 100 billion KRW but less than 1 trillion KRW.

Jung Joonggyo, CEO of Fresh Easy, said, "We started the company with the goal of delivering the freshness of home-cooked meals with the convenience of instant noodles," adding, "We have secured a dominant market share in the domestic market while continuously expanding our product portfolio." He also stated, "We plan to expand production of products that align with the untact trend by collaborating with online food distribution platforms and targeting the delivery market with meal kits for dining establishments."

Fresh Easy was established in 2016. CEO Jung entered the market benchmarking Blue Apron, a leading American meal kit company. The company name reflects the intention to make 'fresh' cooking as 'easy' to eat as instant noodles.

In the early stages of the startup, the company faced difficulties in pioneering sales channels due to the existing distribution structure centered on large corporations. By actively targeting the online fresh food distribution and delivery market and consistently introducing differentiated menus, Fresh Easy gained recognition for its competitiveness and succeeded in entering major distribution channels.

Fresh Easy's sales surged from 1.5 billion KRW in 2017 to 21.8 billion KRW in 2018, and 71.1 billion KRW last year. The sales target for this year is 227.7 billion KRW. As the business rapidly expanded, the number of employees increased from 9 in 2017 to 46 in 2018, and 100 last year. This year, the company plans to steadily hire to increase the number of employees to about 270.

Jeong Jung-kyo, CEO of Fresh Easy

Appropriate policy fund support at the right time played a part in the rapid growth. CEO Jung said, "The startup support fund from the Small and Medium Business Corporation (SBC) received in the early stages of the startup and the growth-sharing fund received this year greatly helped us demonstrate our capabilities as a small enterprise within a distribution structure centered on large corporations," adding, "We were able to hire excellent talents by actively utilizing the SBC Youth Tomorrow Employment Deduction program."

The SBC growth-sharing loan provides funding combining loans and investment elements to companies with excellent future growth potential, promoting startup activation and entry into the growth stage. The loan limit is up to 6 billion KRW per company (7 billion KRW for companies located in provincial areas). Innovative companies and those engaged in materials and components businesses can receive support up to 10 billion KRW.

Kim Hakdo, Chairman of SBC, said, "To respond to the post-COVID era, we will strengthen support for the transition to untact consumption and distribution environments and new industry sectors," adding, "We will spare no effort to support startup companies with technological capabilities and growth potential to grow into global unicorn companies."

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