"Asia Gateway, Korea"... Global Dining Brands Are Coming

Team Hortons, Five Guys, Gordon Ramsay Burger, etc.
Increasing store numbers to strengthen dominance in the domestic market
Intelligentsia and Fitz Coffee also to open soon in Korea

Global dining brands are rapidly expanding their presence in South Korea.

According to the distribution industry on the 19th, Five Guys is currently conducting store installation work to open its third branch in the basement of Shinsegae Gangnam Store in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on Pami Street in February next year.

Five Guys made its first entry into South Korea by opening its first store on Gangnam-daero, Seoul, in June this year, and less than six months later, in October, it opened its second store at The Hyundai Seoul in Yeouido. Both stores have attracted popularity with the so-called ‘open run’ phenomenon, where customers line up even before the stores open. Even now, during lunchtime, many consumers continue to show interest, with lines lasting 1 to 2 hours.

Along with Shake Shack and In-N-Out, Five Guys is known as one of the three major American burger brands and currently operates about 1,800 stores in 23 countries. This is the first ambitious new business promoted by Kim Dong-seon, Vice President and Head of Strategy at Hanwha Galleria, the third son of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-yeon.

Earlier, Gordon Ramsay Burger opened its first store in South Korea in January last year at Lotte World Mall in Jamsil, Seoul. It is a high-priced burger store where the price of one burger exceeds 30,000 KRW. The most expensive menu item, the 1966 Burger, costs up to 140,000 KRW and has been very popular, selling out every day since the store opened. The signature menus, ‘Hell’s Kitchen Burger’ and ‘Forest Burger,’ sell about 7,000 to 8,000 units per month, and the 1966 Burger, made only 60 units daily, has been sold out every day since the store opened.

Riding on this popularity, Gordon Ramsay Burger recently expanded beyond Seoul to Incheon, opening its second ‘Street Burger’ store at Lotte Department Store Incheon on the 14th.

Canadian coffee brand Tim Hortons also officially entered the domestic market by opening its first store at Sinnonhyeon Station in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 14th. The second store, Seolleung Station branch, will open on the 28th, rapidly expanding its contact points with domestic consumers. Furthermore, there are plans to open 150 stores sequentially over the next five years.

On the 14th, customers lined up to enter the first Tim Hortons store in Korea, the 'Sinnonhyeon Station Branch,' located in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, before its opening.
[Photo by Tim Hortons]

Following Tim Hortons, Intelligentsia Coffee, considered one of the three major specialty coffee brands in the U.S., is also rushing to enter the domestic market within this year. Intelligentsia Coffee is famous as a caf? that travelers to Chicago and Los Angeles deliberately visit. Along with Blue Bottle, which entered South Korea in 2019, Peet’s Coffee, known as one of the three major West Coast coffees in the U.S., has filed a trademark in Korea and is reportedly coordinating the timing for opening its first store.

The reason global brands are focusing on targeting the Korean market is that domestic consumers are sensitive to trends, making Korea a suitable testbed before expanding into the Asian market.

Professor Lee Eun-hee of the Department of Consumer Studies at Inha University said, “Korea is called a coffee republic due to its high coffee consumption, and it shows food and beverage and dining trends that easily accept and consume fast food such as hamburgers,” adding, “From the perspective of global brands, Korea is a very attractive market among Asian countries, so they are rushing to enter, and competition among them is expected to intensify accordingly.”

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