[Finding Young Entrepreneurs] "We Make Safe Food That Customers Truly Need"

Growth to 10 Billion KRW Sales in 4 Years: Dalsim Co-Founders Jogeon-guk & Son Ju-young

‘A Brand Thinking of Wives, for Women’ Inner Beauty Draws Attention

Emphasizing ‘Safe Foods Over Trendy Bestsellers’

Jogeon Guk (left) and Jooyoung Son (right), founders of DS Nature, are explaining the inner beauty products.

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] A female inner beauty brand founded by two 34-year-old friends has become a hot topic as it grew into a 10 billion KRW sales company in just four years.

Notably, both founders are men, drawing attention with the slogan "A brand that thinks of wives, a brand for women."

Asia Economy met with young entrepreneurs Jogeon Guk and Son Jooyoung.

In 2017, when the K-beauty wave was booming, they operated the offline distribution corporation of VT Cosmetic, a promising domestic K-beauty brand. A year later, they successfully led VT Cosmetic’s joint venture in Thailand, spearheading K-beauty’s entry into the Southeast Asian market.

However, they soon began to sense changes in the market. It was the time when the inner beauty market, rather than beauty, started expanding rapidly.

After much deliberation, in 2019, they established the slogan "A brand that thinks of wives, a brand for women" and founded the brand "Dalsim."

“Dalsim” has grown into a brand loved by a wide range of customers, from MZ generation women interested in inner beauty and dieting to women in their 40s and 50s who frequently seek detox and health foods.

The reason these two young men founded an inner beauty brand for women reportedly began with their love and affection for their wives.

They had promised their wives that after marriage, they would always live like princesses, but after marriage, having children and raising them, they found themselves seeing their wives not as the beautiful women they were before marriage, but as mothers and wives.

They wanted to help their wives regain their lovely and beautiful appearance as before marriage and to keep their promise of always living like princesses. With this mindset, they started a brand not only for their wives but for many women to always be healthy and beautiful.

The brand name "Dalsim" also aligns with this. It is a compound word combining "Dal" (moon), which has traditionally been sought for health, well-being, and earnest wishes, and "Sim" (heart), meaning a pure heart wishing for the health and well-being of loved ones.

Starting with the swelling tea "Dalsimcha" in 2019, they released various products including body fat diet products. In the cleanse juice market, Dalsim x Farm Kitchen ABC Juice and Dalsim Oilman Juice consecutively became hits, growing into a brand generating 10 billion KRW in sales solely through their own online mall.

▲ Dalsim’s unique domain created with 10 billion KRW sales through its own online mall

One of the common concerns among all women is undoubtedly dieting. Although there were many diet products and brands on the market, most were diet supplements.

Dalsim wanted to help sustainable and healthy dieting with the belief that all beauty comes from within. The first product they developed was Dalsimcha, which helps alleviate swelling, or edema, in women.

Although similar products existed in the market, Dalsimcha satisfied customers’ demands with its attractive packaging that moves women’s hearts and a unique recipe using traditional Korean medicine ingredients, gaining great love from the start.

Building on the success of Dalsimcha, they launched the ABC juice, a detox juice that became famous overseas in 2020, which turned out to be a huge hit.

Dalsim ABC Juice saw an overwhelming surge in orders immediately after launch, to the extent that it was only available through pre-orders. The pre-order sales that started in June 2020 only switched to regular sales in December during winter.

Since then, Dalsim expanded its detox/cleanse line based on ABC juice and has established its own domain loved by customers with various products including Oilman Juice.

The first product of the Dalsim brand, three types of Dalsimcha for swelling relief. / Provided by DS Nature

▲ For the two founders, the brand is a ‘good vessel’

Creating a brand that did not exist before and developing products that did not exist before to sell was not easy. However, they did not seek an easy path just because it was difficult.

During the pandemic, when e-commerce rapidly grew, many brands flocked to various platforms like Coupang and SSG because consumers gathered there. If a brand succeeded in ranking high, it could quickly achieve its sales targets.

However, the two CEOs chose a strategy centered on their own online mall to grow the brand instead.

They judged that if they relied on e-commerce platforms like others, they might be remembered as just one of many similar products by the public. They agreed that they needed to create a good vessel called a brand and fill it with products they researched and developed themselves.

Thus, they have been building the vessel called Dalsim for four years, quickly achieving 200,000 members on their own mall and annual sales of 10 billion KRW in four years, and their growth continues unabated.

▲ Product categories completed by period and purpose reflecting customer needs

Under the principle of "making safe foods rather than best-selling products," they do not produce trendy products unless they are what customers want. This is Dalsim’s rule.

Their philosophy is to make safe foods that customers truly need, not just best-selling products.

Starting with swelling tea, the Dalsim brand now offers 24 products categorized into short-, mid-, and long-term management plans by period, and health, management, and body fat management plans by purpose, allowing customers to enjoy health foods and diet foods with peace of mind.

▲ Systematic categories and balanced sales distribution by product

In the brand market, having many SKUs (stock keeping units) is not necessarily good.

In other words, having many products does not mean the brand is stable. While many products might suggest many items to sell, it could also mean many types of dead stock.

Dalsim has succeeded in SKU management while developing and selling 24 products.

They achieved a balanced sales distribution across various products rather than sales being concentrated on specific products.

This is because, as mentioned earlier, they completed product categories by period and purpose, so customers who visit Dalsim purchase various category products that meet their needs, resulting in a well-distributed sales pattern.

▲ Dalsim’s real juice introduced to the cleanse juice market

Cleanse juice, which became very famous in the U.S. as Hollywood stars enjoyed it, has various recipes but most are concentrates or pressed juices.

Pressed juice highlights the advantage of being freshly squeezed compared to concentrates and is very popular in the cleanse juice market. However, real cleanse juice can raise absorption rates to about 90% when the raw materials are boiled and ground.

In other words, rather than consuming fruit or vegetables as concentrates or pressed juice, boiling and grinding them allows us to obtain the real juice nutrients we truly need and experience the cleanse effect.

Dalsim conducted countless tests with food factories nationwide and launched its real juice, made by grinding whole ingredients including the peel, not pressed juice, into the cleanse juice market. This strategy succeeded, gaining huge popularity with daily sell-outs.

▲ Smooth establishment of local export corporation despite difficult export conditions during the pandemic

Despite the challenging export market, they entered the ASEAN market directly through their experience establishing a local corporation in Thailand during their cosmetics business and the partnerships maintained since then. They established Good People Korea, a Korea-ASEAN specialized trade and overseas marketing corporation.

Through this, they achieved not only exports of the Dalsim brand but also overseas expansion of various promising domestic brands.

Together with CIC GROUP, a Thai logistics company with 30 years of tradition, they handle forwarding, warehousing, customs, and all other operations within the ASEAN market directly, operating their own logistics warehouse and transport trucks in Bangkok, enabling smooth exports even during difficult times.

CEOs Jogeon Guk and Son Jooyoung expect to surpass 15 billion KRW in their own mall sales and aim for 20 billion KRW with full-scale distribution entry.

They said, "Brands centered on their own malls, which had been cautious about entering distribution, are now starting distribution sales, and industry buyers who have proposed deals so far are very welcoming," adding, "However, it is most important to maintain balance so that this also grows alongside the continuous growth of our own mall."

They continued, "It is not important for brand products to be stocked in many places, but that customers consume Dalsim’s products healthily is the most important," and "We want customers unfamiliar with online shopping to also enjoy healthy dieting and management with Dalsim’s good products through distribution along with our own mall."

They added, "Our goal is to be remembered as Dalsim, a brand for women that sells ‘safe foods,’ not just best-selling products," and "We want to be remembered as an inner beauty food brand that never loses its original intention, always researching and developing healthy foods for women and walking healthily with our customers."

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