[National Brand] 'Pepero,' the Global Snack with Annual Sales of 1 Trillion Won

Lotte Wellfood's Leading Chocolate Bar Snack
Inspired by November 11 'Pepero Day' Annually
40% of Annual Sales Concentrated in Fall and Winter Seasons
Number One Market Share in Domestic Chocolate
Expanding Exports and Establishing Overseas Production Lines

Pepero, a long stick coated with chocolate, is a representative snack of Lotte Wellfood. Every year on November 11th, this snack is symbolized by 'Pepero Day.' During the fall and winter season (September to November), when this anniversary falls, Pepero sales increase significantly, with 40% of the annual sales concentrated in this period.

Pepero [Photo by Lotte Wellfood]

Pepero Day began in the mid-1990s among middle school girls in the Gyeongnam region. It is known that every November, students in this area exchanged Pepero as a symbol of friendship. As this culture spread nationwide, it became a representative commemorative day.

First introduced in 1983, Pepero surpassed cumulative sales of 2 trillion won by last year, marking its 40th anniversary. According to the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT) Food Industry Statistics Information, Pepero held a 16.4% market share in the domestic chocolate sector last year, ranking first. Until the late 2000s, other confectionery companies such as Orion and Haitai Confectionery introduced long chocolate snacks to compete with Pepero, but they could not match its popularity.

Having dominated the domestic market, Pepero is now expanding its reach to overseas consumers. As of the first half of this year, Pepero's export value was approximately 32.5 billion won, a 30% increase compared to the same period last year, and for the first time on a half-year basis, exports surpassed domestic sales (31.5 billion won).

Since 2020, Lotte Wellfood has been conducting integrated global marketing for Pepero under the same slogan domestically and internationally. As of last year, Pepero was sold in over 50 countries overseas, recording export sales of about 54 billion won. This represents more than an 86% growth compared to the export value of 29 billion won in 2020, when the integrated global marketing was first implemented. With simultaneous growth in domestic and export sales, Pepero's total sales exceeded 200 billion won last year.

Lotte Wellfood plans to develop Pepero into a global mega brand with sales of 1 trillion won. Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group, visited global food production bases in Belgium and Poland last month with executives from Lotte's Korean and Japanese food affiliates for on-site management. At this meeting, the Korean and Japanese Lotte food companies agreed to collaborate to nurture a global mega brand with annual sales of 1 trillion won, selecting 'Pepero' as the first product to realize this goal. Accordingly, various strategies will be implemented to expand exports to Southeast Asia and North America, establish overseas production lines, and more, aiming to make Pepero a global top 10 and Asia's number one brand by 2035.

Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group (second from the right), is inspecting the Gillian production plant located in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium.
[Photo by Lotte Group]

Already in January this year, India was chosen as the first overseas production base for the Lotte Pepero brand, and a new facility investment of 2.1 billion rupees (approximately 33 billion won) was decided for local production at Lotte India’s Haryana factory. Starting from mid-next year, the plan is to secure idle space within the Haryana factory and establish automated production lines for products with high local demand, such as Original Pepero and Crunky Pepero. This is expected to expand domestic sales in India and enable exports to neighboring countries.

A Lotte Wellfood official stated, "Recently, along with K-pop and K-food, the number of consumers interested in Korea overseas has increased, continuing strong growth in the global market. We will also actively promote the culture of Pepero Day so that people around the world can enjoy it together."

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