[Should I Start a Business Too] School Food "We Deliver Dreams Into Your Mouth"

School Food Special Mari 2. Photo by School Food

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] There is a dining franchise born from the imagination that even snack foods can become high-end dishes served in restaurants. School Food, which opened its first store in a single-room in Nonhyeon-dong in 2002, has grown into a long-lasting brand operating over 90 stores domestically and internationally after 20 years.

The unique gimbap called ‘Mari,’ smaller than traditional gimbap but packed with the original flavors of several ingredients, is credited as the top contributor to making School Food widely known. According to School Food, as of the 4th, the menu item with the highest cumulative sales among all School Food menus is the Mozzarella Spam Egg Mari, with about 14,365 units sold, accounting for a 14.1% share.

School Food aims to transcend premium snack foods by targeting women in their 20s and 30s as the main customer base, offering street food staples like gimbap and tteokbokki with chef-level menu quality and stylish caf? interiors, aspiring to casual Korean cuisine. Since its inception, the brand has continuously developed unique menus that break away from stereotypes, playing a pioneering role in the industry.

Recently, it has also been putting great effort into targeting the MZ generation, who are familiar with using social media such as Instagram. The white chewy noodles called ‘Eoganjang Yukgam Jjolmyeon,’ launched in 2016, is another representative unique menu of School Food. It has maintained popularity for a long time, with a cumulative sales volume of 240,000 bowls to date. This original menu breaks the stereotype of chewy noodles made with red sauce by using artisan-made Jeju eoganjang (fish soy sauce), grilled pork, and chives, making it perfect even for children.

As the COVID-19 era has prolonged recently, School Food is expanding its delivery business further. In response to the spread of contactless trends, it introduced a smaller micro-store model called ‘Delivery Mini Type,’ which is even smaller than the existing delivery franchise stores of about 20 pyeong (approximately 66 square meters).

The startup cost for the Delivery Mini Type, which is about 9 pyeong (approximately 30 square meters), is only around 55 million KRW. To maximize operational efficiency, it sells only the top-selling menu items that had high sales shares in existing School Food stores.

The franchise store types have also diversified to reduce the burden on franchisees, including the ‘Delivery Slim Type’ of about 12 pyeong (approximately 40 square meters) and the ‘Delivery Mini Type’ of about 9 pyeong.

Lee Yang-yeol, CEO of School Food, said, “School Food has strived to present menus with excellent quality and taste based on trust with customers over 20 years,” and added, “We will continue to work hard to uphold our management philosophy of offering healthy and delicious food.”

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