"Bbangji Sunrae" Craze: Regional Bakeries Scale Up, Employment Doubles

Seongsimdang Sees 318% Sales Growth in Five Years
Iseongdang in Gunsan, Ttujuuru in Cheonan, and OPS in Busan Also Gain Popularity
Blending Tradition and Regional Roots with Innovative Flexibility
Boosting Employment and Driving Local Econo

The so-called "Bread Pilgrimage" trend—where people travel nationwide to try signature products from local bakeries—is continuing, and as a result, regional bakeries have rapidly scaled up. Increased sales have led to expanded hiring, and bakeries are now serving as important local hubs. As the Bread Pilgrimage trend is expected to persist for the time being, there are growing expectations that bakeries will play a key role in the restructuring of local economies.

According to the electronic disclosure system on April 16, Rosso, the operator of Seongsimdang—a famous bakery in Daejeon—recently announced in its audit report that it recorded sales of 262.9 billion won last year. Sales increased by 318% over five years, rising from 62.9 billion won in 2021. Operating profit more than doubled, jumping from 1.7 billion won in 2021 to 3.7 billion won last year. In 2023, Seongsimdang became the first single-brand bakery, not part of a franchise, to surpass 100 billion won in sales, and it has continued to grow since then. Celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, Seongsimdang operates more than 10 stores in Daejeon, including its main location in Jung-gu.

Despite the rainy weather, visitors are lining up in front of the Seongsimdang main store, a representative landmark of Daejeon, to purchase bread. Photo by Huh Younghan

Bread Pilgrimage Craze... Regional Bakery Sales Soar

Riding the Bread Pilgrimage boom, bakeries in other regions have also seen sharp sales increases. Lee Seongdang, a well-known bakery in Gunsan, saw its sales jump 37%, from 21.7 billion won in 2021 to 29.8 billion won last year. With an 81-year history, Lee Seongdang currently operates its main store and an annex in downtown Gunsan. Other bakeries such as TtuJuru Gwaja-jeom in Cheonan, famous for Turtle Bread and Stone Oven Manju, and OPS in Busan, known for its Myeongran Baguette and Hagwonjeon, have also experienced rapid growth over the past five years. TtuJuru Development, which operates TtuJuru Gwaja-jeom, saw sales rise nearly fourfold, from 8.8 billion won in 2021 to 31.5 billion won last year, while OPS’s sales increased by 23.5% over the same period.

Seongsimdang, OPS, and Lee Seongdang are all bakery manufacturers that produce bread using ingredients such as wheat flour, rice flour, and sweet red bean paste. Seongsimdang, in particular, is on par with large corporations. According to FIS Food Industry Statistics Information, Seongsimdang ranked fourth among bread manufacturers by sales in 2024. Considering that Paris Croissant, Shany, and SPL—all affiliates of Sangmidang Holdings—took the top three spots, Seongsimdang stands shoulder-to-shoulder with major companies. Notably, in terms of operating profit, Seongsimdang outperformed all large companies to rank first in 2024, with 47.8 billion won, far surpassing the second-place Paris Croissant, which recorded 22.3 billion won. OPS also ranked 15th in sales and 9th in operating profit among bread manufacturers in 2024.

Local and Traditional Bakeries See Huge Success Thanks to SNS

One reason regional bakeries nationwide have been able to scale up is that, since the mid-2010s, visiting bakeries across the country has become a cultural phenomenon and travel trend, especially among young people. The culture of sharing experiences on social networking services (SNS) has fueled the spread of experiential consumption, and a kind of “stamp rally” pilgrimage culture has taken root. Local bakeries have responded flexibly—not just sticking to signature items like cream bread and red bean bread, but launching new menu items in line with trends and actively engaging on SNS.

Gunsan Lee Seongdang

Moon Seung-ryul, a professor at Chosun University who studied the marketing strategies of Seongsimdang and Lee Seongdang last year, analyzed that both bakeries have competitiveness because they maintain strong ties to their regions and uphold product quality based on tradition, while also actively utilizing online channels.

Lee Seongdang was founded in 1945, Seongsimdang in 1956, OPS in 1989, and TtuJuru in 1992—meaning all have been in operation for at least 30 years. Lee Seongdang describes itself as "the oldest bakery in Korea." At the same time, Seongsimdang is famous for having all its locations in Daejeon, and TtuJuru is based solely in Cheonan with no stores elsewhere. Even in 2024, when Seongsimdang operated a pop-up store at 'Culture Station Seoul 284' in Jung-gu, Seoul, it maintained its policy of only selling bread in Daejeon, sometimes refraining from selling bread at the pop-up for that reason. Lee Seongdang and OPS have their main stores as their flagship locations and operate stores near the Seoul metropolitan area, but all are directly managed.

Hiring Also Surges... Bakeries Become Hubs, Drawing More Outside Visitors

This trend has led to tangible expansion of local economies. Over the past five years, employment at regional bakeries has increased significantly. Seongsimdang’s workforce more than doubled from 476 in 2021 to 1,000 last year. As a result, Seongsimdang’s labor-related costs (salaries, retirement benefits, human resource development, and welfare expenses) rose 175% over the same period, from 11 billion won to 30.3 billion won. In 2024, news emerged that Seongsimdang would build a workplace daycare center. Lee Seongdang’s workforce grew from 68 to 191 over five years, OPS increased from 193 to 196, and TtuJuru more than tripled its staff, reaching 277 employees.

Customers are selecting bread at Seongsimdang, a representative landmark of Daejeon. Photo by Huh Younghan

The number of visitors and tourism spending in these regions also increased. According to Korea Tourism Data Lab, Jung-gu in Daejeon, where Seongsimdang’s main store is located, saw a 50% increase in outside visitors last year compared to 2021. In Tmap Mobility’s ranking of the top 1,000 annual destinations last year, Seongsimdang’s main store rose from 129th to 84th place, while Lee Seongdang’s main store jumped from 536th to 443rd in just one year. With the influx of visitors to Seongsimdang, Daejeon even saw the emergence of "bread taxis"—cars equipped with folding tables and coolers for bakery shoppers. Jeonbuk Gunsan, home to Lee Seongdang; Dongnam-gu in Cheonan, where TtuJuru Bread Stone Oven Village is located; and Haeundae-gu in Busan, where OPS’s famous store is found, all saw their outside visitor numbers grow by more than 20% over five years.

Card spending in the bakery and beverage sector, a measure of tourism expenditure by region, shows that Jung-gu, Daejeon, saw a 370% increase over five years, reaching 70.3 billion won. During the same period, Jeonbuk Gunsan rose by 52%, Dongnam-gu in Cheonan by 44%, and Haeundae-gu in Busan by 43%.

Bread festivals organized by local governments to leverage the Bread Pilgrimage trend have also become popular. Since 2021, Daejeon City has held an annual bread festival, with the number of participating bakeries growing from about 30 at the beginning to 102 last year. According to Korea Railroad Corporation’s Daejeon-Chungnam branch, during the past three years, the number of people using KTX at Daejeon Station during the bread festival increased by 1.2 times compared to the average for the same days (Saturday and Sunday) when the festival was not held. Cheonan City also holds a bread festival twice a year, with participation from local bakeries.

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