Pulmuone Drives 30% Growth in Frozen Pizza Market with Hit 'No Edge Pizza'

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Pulmuone's 'No Edge Pizza' has revitalized the frozen pizza market in South Korea, which had been stagnant.

Pulmuone Foods announced on the 1st that its frozen home meal replacement (HMR) 'No Edge Pizza,' targeting the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z), recorded sales of 33.5 billion KRW last year.

The popularity of 'No Edge Pizza' played a role in driving the overall sales of the domestic frozen pizza market, which had been sluggish. According to Nielsen Korea, the size of the domestic frozen pizza market peaked at 98.1 billion KRW in 2018 but sharply declined by 27% to 71.5 billion KRW in 2019.

At the end of 2019, when Pulmuone entered the domestic frozen pizza market, the market returned to a growth trend. Last year, the domestic frozen pizza market size reached 92 billion KRW based on Nielsen Korea data, growing about 30% year-on-year and achieving a V-shaped recovery, showing a similar trend to the quarterly sales of Pulmuone's frozen pizza products.

Domestic Frozen Pizza Market Size. (Source: Provided by Pulmuone)

Before entering the frozen pizza market, Pulmuone introduced the latest pizza manufacturing technologies from Italy and the United States and conducted two years of research and development. As a result, they first introduced a process that allows toppings to be richly covered to the very 'edge,' launching three types of 'No Edge Pizza,' and also released two types of 'Crust Pizza' produced through a fully automated process that covers the crust area.

Thanks to significantly improved frozen pizza quality, the 'No Edge & Crust Pizza' exceeded cumulative sales of 1 million units within two months of launch, and Pulmuone set an annual frozen pizza sales target of 15 billion KRW. Due to better-than-expected sales performance and positive customer feedback, the sales target was revised to 30 billion KRW last year, ultimately exceeding it by more than 10% with 33.5 billion KRW.

Jegal Jiyoon, PM of Pulmuone Foods' Frozen FRM Business Division, said, “The success of Pulmuone's No Edge and Crust Pizza is the result of two years of repeated trial and error and dedicated research and development.” She added, “This year as well, we will continue innovation by introducing new pizza products that can further increase consumer satisfaction through ongoing research and development.”

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