Convenience Store Cream Bread Battle Continues in the New Year... Dessert Sales Soar

Convenience Store Big 4 'Saengcream Bread' Competition Heats Up
Rising Dessert Category Sales Due to Cream Bread Popularity

7-Eleven 'Jeju Milk Fresh Cream Bread'

Seven Eleven has declared its entry into the cream bread battle, proclaiming itself as the "originator of the half-cut shot (a photo showing the inside of a product by cutting it in half)" cream bread, as competition among convenience store chains over cream bread continues unabated into the new year.

According to industry sources on the 12th, Seven Eleven launched the "Jeju Milk Fresh Cream Bread," using the marketing slogan "the originator of the half-cut shot cream bread." In August 2016, Seven Eleven collaborated with the food edit shop "Manna Station" to introduce two types of "Manna Station Cream Bread" with the concept of "loaded with cream," which became the top-selling dessert product at the time. Seven Eleven explained that with the recent resurgence in the popularity of cream bread, they decided to release a product in collaboration with Jeju Milk.

Earlier, CU fired the starting shot in the convenience store cream bread battle. CU launched the "Yonsei Fresh Cream Bread" in February last year, achieving great success, with cumulative sales reaching 20 million units to date. Last month, CU released the sixth product in the Yonsei Cream Bread series, the limited edition "Yellow Cheese Fresh Cream Bread," which sold over 170,000 units within a week, proving the sustained enthusiasm.

CU 'Yonsei Yellow Cheese Cream Bread'

Riding this wave of popularity, industry players have been rushing to introduce new fresh cream bread products to capture customers. GS25 started with four types of fresh cream bread under its premium bakery brand "Bredique" in February 2021, followed by three types of Bredique fresh cream Maritozzo in July last year, and two types of "Fresh Cream Donut" in October in collaboration with Maeil Dairies. Emart24 also launched two products, "Geundae Alley Cream Bread" and "Cream Bread Bread Donut," in August last year.

Consumers responded immediately. GS25's fresh cream bread sales have grown to 83 times the size of the initial launch within the past month, and the amount of fresh cream used over the past two years has exceeded approximately 400 tons. A GS25 representative explained, "Renewing the products with premium fresh cream and changing the packaging to meet the elevated expectations of customers were key factors in evolving fresh cream bread into a high-quality product."

As fresh cream bread gains popularity, sales in the dessert category are also rapidly increasing. CU's dessert category sales increased by 120.6% year-on-year last year, with cream bread accounting for 56% of sales as of last month. Cream bread has driven growth in the related product group. GS25 also saw the share of fresh cream bread sales within refrigerated desserts rise to 40%, pushing the category's sales growth rate to 122.4% last year.

Emart24's three cream bread products all ranked among the top five best-selling items in the dessert product group, leading growth. An Emart24 representative said, "Since the launch of cream bread products in August last year, dessert category sales surged 359% year-on-year through December," adding, "Products introduced in line with the trend of cream-based desserts gaining popularity are driving sales."

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