Convenience Store Focuses on Bread... CU Launches Premium Bakery Line

Sequential Release of Over 10 Types
App Pre-Registration Event from 24th to 27th

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] CU announced on the 24th that it will launch the industry's first premium bakery line and sequentially release about 10 differentiated products composed of healthy bread sets along with jams, sauces, and more.

The first product to be released, ‘Chandalf Bread (Herb Bread · Grain Bread),’ is a set consisting of French premium jam Chandalf Jam (28g), made by simmering 100% fruit without any artificial sweeteners such as sugar, and healthy bread with a mild taste. Each is priced at 3,200 won.

Herb Bread is an authentic Italian-style bread characterized by a chewy texture and rich aroma from various herbs such as rosemary, basil, and thyme, and is mainly used as a pre-meal bread in restaurants due to its mild flavor. Grain Bread is a healthy bread filled with various grains such as brown rice, oats, and millet, offering a nutty taste the more you chew.

Herb Bread is paired with pomegranate raspberry jam that stimulates the appetite, while Grain Bread is paired with black cherry jam, known for its rich and heavy sweetness. All products in the Chandalf Bread series include an eco-friendly wood jam knife made from processed birch wood, without any chemicals or synthetic resins.

CU is launching the premium bread line because customer demand is expanding to various products beyond the existing popular convenience store snack breads such as cream bread and red bean bread. According to CU, sales of meal replacement bakery items such as bread, morning rolls, and croissants surged 115.1% year-on-year from the 1st to the 21st of this month. Compared to the overall bakery sales growth of just over 10% during the same period, this is more than a tenfold increase.

Lee Ho-seop, MD of BGF Retail’s Product Headquarters, said, "Convenience store bakeries have mainly offered snack breads such as cream bread and pizza bread, but recently, mild breads for sandwiches or as side dishes for cooking have emerged as a trend, so we are introducing differentiated breads accordingly. CU plans to continuously expand premium breads that were difficult to find in convenience stores, such as ciabatta, focaccia, and whole wheat bread."

Meanwhile, to coincide with the product launch, CU will hold a pre-order event from the 24th to the 27th of this month on CU’s membership application ‘PocketCU,’ where customers can pre-order Chandalf Bread series products at a 40% discounted price.

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