“MZ Generation Loves It”… GS25 and Cookat Synergy ‘Hits’

Full-scale product sales starting June this year
80% of customers aged 10-30

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] GS25 has been reaping synergy effects from its acquisition since it began full-scale sales of Cookat products at over 16,000 stores nationwide in June this year. Notably, most customers purchasing Cookat products are young people, showing a strong influx of MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z) customers.

According to GS25 on the 24th, the daily average sales of Cookat products increased by 42.7% from the launch in June to the period from the 1st to the 22nd of this month. Over 80% of Cookat product buyers are in their teens to thirties. The number of Cookat products handled by GS25 expanded from 24 items in June to 33 items this month. Cookat is a startup in which GS Retail acquired a 47.1% stake in January this year and is Asia's largest food media company with 33 million global social media followers.

The best-selling Cookat product at GS25 was found to be the Strawberry Glutinous Rice Cake Bar. This product features milk ice cream coated with strawberry, filled with glutinous rice cake and strawberry pur?e inside. Following this were the Gonghwachun Charcoal-grilled Boneless Chicken Feet, Tiramisu Milk, Strawberry Milk Glutinous Rice Cake, and Strawberry Milk. GS Retail and Cookat have jointly planned a total of four products. The representative product is the Gonghwachun Charcoal-grilled Boneless Chicken Feet, which was launched by combining the private brand (PB) Gonghwachun Ramen with Cookat products.

A customer is purchasing a Cookat product at the convenience store GS25.

Currently, seven Cookat-specialized stores are in operation, with plans to expand to 25 stores by the end of the year. These stores are convenience stores that dedicate at least three tiers of their frozen display cases exclusively to Cookat products, selling 101 types of Cookat products, which is more than regular stores. As a result, sales of key product categories such as frozen desserts and frozen side dishes were approximately 28 times and 15 times higher, respectively, compared to regular stores.

GS25 is also considering selling Cookat products at convenience stores overseas. The plan is to leverage the unique products exclusive to GS25 to target local consumers. Currently, GS25 operates about 160 stores in Vietnam and about 70 stores in Mongolia. In Malaysia, the first store will open next year, with plans to expand to 500 stores within five years.

A GS Retail official said, "Cookat products, which have been very popular mainly online, are also showing good responses in the convenience store channel," adding, "We will continue to expand existing popular items as well as new and attractive products in offline channels."

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