Convenience Stores, Signature Wine Development War

CU Launches October PB Wine 'mmm!'
Second After Last Month's Emart24 'Kkomo'
"Signature Wine, Brand Differentiation Strategy"
Imported from Renowned Overseas Regions... Strong Cost-Effectiveness

[Asia Economy Reporter Minyoung Cha] Convenience store CU is launching a signature wine brand. Leveraging the strengths of its private brand (PB), it plans to introduce differentiated products ranging from affordable wines with a focus on cost-effectiveness (performance relative to price) to premium wines in the future.

According to industry sources on the 7th, BGF Retail, which operates CU, plans to launch products related to its own wine brand 'mmm!' in October. The brand name mmm! is a textual representation of the natural exclamation that bursts out when savoring a sip of wine. However, the specific product lineup has not yet been finalized.

A BGF Retail official explained, "As part of our differentiation strategy, we plan to introduce various wines directly sourced from overseas wine regions at affordable prices," adding, "We will start with mid-to-low price lines and gradually expand the number of products up to premium lines."

Thanks to the so-called 'hon-sul' (drinking alone) trend, wine sales at convenience stores have been increasing every year. CU also saw its wine category sales from January 1 to August 5 this year grow by 51.2% compared to the same period last year. From 2017 to 2018 and 2019, the year-on-year growth rates were 14.5%, 28.3%, and 38.3%, respectively, showing an increasing growth rate each year. Especially this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with people refraining from going out and enjoying drinks at home becoming the trend, convenience store wines benefited significantly.

Competition among convenience stores to attract wine customers has also intensified. For example, Emart24, a convenience store, introduced the signature wine 'Como' in July, emphasizing cost-effectiveness. Como was created with the concept of 'popularizing wine' by offering various wines from overseas regions such as France and Argentina at prices below 10,000 KRW. Additionally, with online alcohol purchases prohibited, the 'smart order' system allowing reservation orders has become common among convenience stores. In CU's case, regular CU stores offer small-sized wines under 375ml, and since May, the membership app-based CU Wine Shop has introduced high-priced wines, implementing a two-way roadmap.

Seo Hyewon, a product planner (MD) for beverages and food at BGF Retail, said, "Recently, as the number of hon-sul and home drinking customers has increased significantly, customers' expectations for convenience store wines have risen greatly," adding, "Customer preferences for wine taste are becoming more segmented, so we plan to diversify price ranges, vintages, and production regions, as well as actively carry out wine-related events."

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