[BizLeader] Seomansu SJ Kore CEO "Nostalgic Gukddeok to Become a Trend-Leading Brand"

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] "Trends may change, but the original never does. We will continue to grow by launching trend-leading products like the ‘Nostalgic Elementary School Tteokbokki.’"

Seo Mansu, CEO of SJ Kore, famous for the Nostalgic Elementary School Tteokbokki (hereafter ‘Gukddeok’) brand, stated this goal in an interview with Asia Economy.

SJ Kore, established in 2013, is a specialized company focusing on ready-to-eat home meal replacement (HMR) products, primarily manufacturing tteokbokki. Its headquarters and factory are located in Gumi, Gyeongsangbuk-do, with a sales office in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

Gukddeok was launched in 2013. Since its release, it has been steadily loved and is sold in over 30 countries worldwide. The cumulative export value of the product reached 15 million USD as of last month. Domestically, it currently ranks first in tteokbokki sales on platforms such as Coupang, Gmarket, and 11st.

CEO Seo attributed Gukddeok’s success to differentiation from existing products. When planning the product in 2012, the concept was set as ‘food that stimulates emotions, snacks with stories,’ deciding to commercialize the tteokbokki eaten at street stalls in front of schools during childhood.

He said, "At that time, all tteokbokki products on the market consisted of rice cakes and sauce. Gukddeok replaced rice cakes with soft wheat cakes and packaged them with broth sauce that pairs well with wheat cakes and fish cakes, making it the first wheat cake package. The packaging was also differentiated by using a lunchbox-style container."

Gukddeok is also attracting attention overseas. Forty-five percent of total sales come from exports. CEO Seo explained that the decision to export abroad was due to foreign preferences. He said, "While our product was gaining popularity, many companies copied it, flooding the market with similar products, which made us feel a sense of crisis. Then, I saw a newspaper article stating that the food foreigners visiting Korea most wanted to eat again was tteokbokki, which led us to actively pursue overseas expansion."

He made nearly 20 overseas business trips in a year to break into other markets. Eventually, positive responses at Korean marts run by overseas Koreans in the U.S. allowed expansion into other markets.

As of 2018, SJ Kore’s sales and operating profit were 5.8 billion KRW and 1.6 billion KRW, respectively; in 2019, they increased to 7.7 billion KRW and 2.5 billion KRW, and last year reached 10.8 billion KRW and 3.2 billion KRW. The company plans to expand its factory in August to increase annual production from 10 billion KRW to 25?30 billion KRW.

This year, the strategy is to expand into markets previously unchallenged, such as Europe and Southeast Asia. CEO Seo said, "Europe has complicated and strict procedures, but we are currently passing each step and aim to target it in the second half of the year. Southeast Asia was previously limited due to cold chain issues, but now we plan to proceed as much as possible."

CEO Seo’s goal is to sell ‘Gukddeok’ worldwide. He emphasized, "When I visited Switzerland on a business trip, I went up to Jungfrau and saw Korean ramen being sold at a store there. Just as ramen is sold there, we want our ‘Gukddeok’ to be easily found in markets all over the world."

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