CJ Foodville Expands 'RMR Business'..."300% Sales Growth Expected Next Year"

No.1 Company Freshezi with Manufacturing Infrastructure Forms Business Partnership
Developing Dining Brand Signature Menus as RMR Anchor Products

On the morning of the 5th, Kim Chan-ho, CEO of CJ Foodville (left), and Jung Jung-kyo, Co-CEO of Fresh Easy (right), signed a business agreement and took a commemorative photo at the CJ Foodville headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-sun]CJ Foodville is set to aggressively expand its Restaurant Meal Replacement (RMR) business. The company aims to make next year the inaugural year of a quantum leap and solidify its position as a market leader. RMR refers to premium home meal replacement products based on restaurant recipes.

On the 15th, CJ Foodville announced at its Euljiro headquarters that it signed a business agreement with Fresh Easy, a specialized meal kit manufacturer (co-CEOs Jung Joong-gyo), to expand its restaurant meal replacement business reflecting the single economy trend with single-serving steaks, pastas, and more. The single economy refers to various economic activities targeting single-person households. Through this agreement, both companies will leverage their top-tier domestic premium restaurant meal replacement manufacturing and sales capabilities to develop products and expand distribution channels. In particular, they plan to segment products and expand their portfolio considering that single-person households account for more than 30% of the total population. CJ Foodville plans to increase its sales scale by more than 300% compared to the previous year.

Bib’s, which officially started its RMR business in 2017, has steadily expanded its product lineup as the meal replacement market grew, beginning with commercializing the salad bar’s “pork ribs.” Through this, it confirmed market potential and in December last year, recruited internal and external experts and established a dedicated organization. Since then, through increased production and expanded distribution channels, the business has grown rapidly, achieving over 200% sales growth compared to the previous year within one year of the organization’s launch. This year alone, Bib’s has launched more than 30 new menu items, offering about 50 RMR products. This makes it the only single brand in Korea with the largest product lineup targeting the RMR market.

Kim Chan-ho, CEO of CJ Foodville, said, “Convenient meals for single-person households have existed in the market before, but ‘Single RMR,’ which combines the healthy taste of premium ingredients only found in restaurants like Bib’s with convenience, will be unique to CJ Foodville. As a dining specialist company, we will grow the RMR business into a second cash cow with CJ Foodville’s unique taste, quality, and service based on our accumulated know-how and extensive customer database.”

The first products introduced through the strategic partnership with Fresh Easy are two types of Bib’s steaks and three types of pasta. While existing Bib’s meal replacements mainly targeted families with 2-3 servings, the new products are differentiated by being single-serving. The ‘Hawaiian Chop Steak’ and ‘Chuck Eye Roll Steak’ come with Bib’s signature steak sauce and various garnishes, allowing convenient enjoyment without the need to prepare ingredients. The ‘Bolognese Pasta,’ ‘Pollack Roe Carbonara Pasta,’ and ‘Shrimp Rose Pasta’ use Italian matured noodles that are cooked and cooled to replicate the texture of fresh noodles, and can be easily prepared in one frying pan without separately boiling the noodles.

Building on this business agreement, both companies plan to continuously release more than 20 new products annually and share distribution channels to target not only the domestic market but also overseas markets.

On the morning of the 15th, models are introducing CJ Foodville's restaurant ready meals at Vips Jeiljedang Center branch in Jung-gu, Seoul.

It is uncommon for a single brand to release dozens of products in the restaurant meal replacement market. This is because most distributors or food manufacturers produce signature menus through partnerships with famous restaurants. However, CJ Foodville plans to expand its product portfolio to over 100 items starting next year. Along with expanding various new distribution channels including live commerce, it also plans to develop exclusive products tailored to the characteristics of each channel. To this end, CJ Foodville will utilize its own production factories and group production infrastructure, and accelerate market expansion through cooperation with various companies with manufacturing competitiveness in each category, starting with Fresh Easy.

CJ Foodville’s dining brands have nationwide stores, providing high customer accessibility and continuously updated menu databases reflecting trends, enabling quick market response. Based on competitiveness such as top R&D chefs in each field, over 20,000 recipes, and years of accumulated customer satisfaction, it can produce and distribute products solely under its own brands. Through this, CJ Foodville’s RMR sales proportion has been growing more than double every year. Additionally, by diversifying customer touchpoints through RMR market expansion, it plans to simultaneously launch a single product in stores, meal replacements, and delivery services, actively nurturing anchor products following pork ribs and salmon.

In fact, Bib’s RMR signature product, ‘Bib’s Pork Ribs,’ which is a product that replicates a popular in-store item as an RMR, is showing strong sales that are difficult to meet due to exploding demand across various distribution channels recently. To meet this explosive demand, four partner factories are currently operating at full capacity.

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