COVID-19 Sparks Milkit Boom... Convenience Stores Outperform Marts, Singles Smile

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] As the spread of COVID-19 reduces dining out and increases the population eating home-cooked meals, sales of convenient meal kits and other easy-to-cook foods are rapidly growing.

GS Retail Simply Cook's Yuktongryeong Pork Neck Lunchbox.

According to the industry on the 12th, convenience stores are fully enjoying the COVID-19 boom through establishing their own brands and launching PB products. The most prominent is GS Retail. Sales of Home Meal Replacements (HMR) grew by 21% in 2021 compared to the same period the previous year. Notably, their own meal kit brand ‘Simply Cook’ showed remarkable growth. Simply Cook’s 2021 sales increased by 487.6% compared to the previous year. A GS Retail official explained the growth by saying, "We have actively expanded convenience store outlets focusing on Simply Cook sales and developed convenience store products accordingly."

BGF Retail also saw a 23.7% increase in HMR sales in 2021 compared to the previous year. BGF Retail offers the meal kit series ‘Easy Cooking’ at its convenience store CU. A BGF Retail official stated, "Sales increased due to the rise in convenience store shoppers during COVID-19 and the growing number of ‘home cook’ consumers who prefer light cooking at home instead of dining out."

In the case of 7-Eleven, HMR sales in 2021 increased by 17.6% compared to the previous year. In 2019, 7-Eleven collaborated with the home meal replacement brand Fresh Easy to launch the meal kit series ‘Seven Cook.’ A 7-Eleven official said, "Due to the impact of COVID-19, dining out decreased, naturally increasing demand for meal kits that can be conveniently eaten at home," adding, "We will continue to introduce various menus to expand consumers’ choices."

Seven Eleven's Wonhalmeoni Boneless Beef Shank Jokbal.

The convenience store industry, which has prospered with meal kits, is now extending its reach beyond home meals to dining-out menus. Recently, the industry has been collaborating with famous restaurants to develop Restaurant Meal Replacement (RMR) businesses. 7-Eleven partnered with the franchise ‘Won Halmoni Bossam Jokbal’ to release boneless pig’s feet and head meat boiled pork products. GS25 collaborated with the popular Apgujeong restaurant ‘Hojokban’ to introduce army stew set lunch boxes and vongole kalguksu (clam noodle soup), among others.

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