FreshEasy Strengthens 'Restaurant Ready Meal' Business with CJ Foodville

At the CJ Foodville building in Jung-gu, Seoul, Kim Chan-ho, CEO of CJ Foodville (left), and Jung Jung-kyo, co-CEO of Fresh Easy (right), are signing a business agreement and taking a commemorative photo.

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] On the 16th, the ready meal specialist company ‘Fresh Easy’ and the dining specialist company ‘CJ Foodville’ announced that they have signed a business agreement to expand their restaurant ready meal (RMR) business.

This business agreement was made by combining CJ Foodville’s diverse dining menus, which include Vips, The Place, Seasonal Table, and Jeil Jemyunso, with Fresh Easy’s production capabilities of over 500 types of ready meals. It aims to jointly plan, produce, and distribute ready meals that meet changing consumer trends driven by the growth of the ready meal market and the continuous increase of single-person households.

The agreement includes ▲collaboration on product development and sales using both companies’ brands ▲promotion through online channels ▲sharing distribution networks in home shopping and offline channels, enabling cooperation in all areas of product planning, production, and distribution. The two companies plan to diversify the RMR product lineup targeting single-person households, which account for more than 30% of the domestic population, by releasing more than 20 new products annually and sharing distribution channels to target not only the domestic market but also overseas markets.

Through the business agreement with CJ Foodville, Fresh Easy will introduce two types of Vips steak and three types of pasta. These are five ready meals designed for single-person households. The steak products, ‘Hawaiian Chop Steak’ and ‘Chuck Eye Roll Steak,’ come with Vips’ signature steak sauce and various garnishes, allowing convenient enjoyment without the need to prepare ingredients. The pasta products, ‘Bolognese Pasta,’ ‘Myeongran Carbonara Pasta,’ and ‘Shrimp Rose Pasta,’ can be easily cooked in a single frying pan without separately boiling the noodles.

Jung Joongkyo, CEO of Fresh Easy, said, “We consider it very meaningful to form a strategic alliance with CJ Foodville, which has overwhelming capabilities in the dining market,” and added, “We expect greater synergy from the combination of CJ Foodville’s dining competitiveness and Fresh Easy’s solid manufacturing capabilities.”

Kim Chanho, CEO of CJ Foodville, stated, “Ready meals for single-person households have existed in the market before, but ‘Single RMR,’ which adds convenience to premium ingredients with healthy flavors only available at restaurants like Vips, will be unique to CJ Foodville,” and said, “Based on the know-how accumulated as a professional dining company and a rich customer database, we will grow the RMR business into a second cash cow with CJ Foodville’s unique taste, quality, and service.”

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