Lotte Wellfood Spins Off Second In-House Venture 'Annualive' as Independent Business Entity

Lotte Wellfood (formerly Lotte Confectionery) announced on the 6th that its second in-house venture, 'Annual Leave,' has spun off as an independent business entity.

Annualive brand showroom cafe. [Photo by Lotte Wellfood]

Annual Leave, which has spun off as an independent business, opened a combined brand showroom and cafe space called 'Annual Leave' in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. It aims for a brandless brand showroom cafe concept. Various products from Lotte Wellfood are naturally incorporated into the menu and merchandise. The name was chosen to convey the meaning of gifting a sweet day like an annual leave to tired modern people. The actual space is also decorated with a European-style home feel so that visitors can enjoy comfortable relaxation as if they were at home even in the city. Heeji Kim, CEO of Annual Leave, wanted to create a modern-day Goethe’s house to differentiate the space.

At the Annual Leave store, they offer signature menu items such as the ‘Annual Leave Latte,’ which uses Lotte Wellfood’s product ‘Fine Whip 5000’ whipped cream enhanced with the nutty flavor of pistachios, and the ‘Cacao Black Latte,’ which maximizes sweet bitterness with cacao shots and unrefined muscovado sugar. In addition, visitors can enjoy various teas, ade drinks, and special desserts made with ingredients like ‘Butter Coconut’ and ‘Anchor Butter.’

Since 2021, Lotte Wellfood has been operating an in-house venture program called ‘LOTTE Creative Valley.’ The final selected in-house venture teams receive various benefits including ▲business support funds ▲separate external office space ▲1:1 consulting opportunities with Lotte Ventures ▲spin-off and equity investment. The first in-house venture team ‘Stand Egg’ achieved breakeven in less than a year after spinning off. This was through revenue from in-app purchases and advertising performance of the mobile puzzle game ‘Cat Garden,’ which officially launched in May last year. Cat Garden surpassed 300,000 users within six months of release and plans to attract more users by adding social network game (SNG) genre elements in the future.

A Lotte Wellfood official said, “We hope that the cafe Annual Leave, which contains symbols of Lotte throughout, will provide a healing time like an annual leave to modern people tired of daily life,” and added, “We will continue to expand the in-house venture program so that employees’ fresh ideas can be commercialized and lead a challenging and innovative corporate culture.”

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