New territories: CJ CheilJedang extending footprint in Oceania, Europe propelled by bibigo’s sales spike

The company has been working on entering mainstream distribution channels and securing local production facilities in Oceania, one of the strategic regions identified for its “K-food new territory expansion”.

As part of this expansion, CJ CheilJedang recently revealed that it will be launching two of bibigo’s signature products, Homestyle Pork Dumplings and Homestyle Pork & Kimchi Flavoured Dumplings, at major supermarket chains New World and PAK’nSAVE in Auckland from early September.

It aims to establish presence at these supermarkets throughout New Zealand in the future.

“Following Australia, we are now able to introduce bibigo dumplings, a globally popular product, to New Zealand consumers. We will expand our presence in local distribution channels with a variety of K-food products that consumers want. ​

“There are approximately 200 New World and PAK’nSAVE stores across New Zealand, so it is expected that they will greatly contribute to increasing consumer awareness and accessibility to bibigo products,” ​said Cha Yoo-jin, CEO of CJ CheilJedang’s Oceania subsidiary.

In Australia, the company is seeing significant progress in both sales channels and new product launches.

After rolling out bibigo dumplings in Woolworths supermarkets in May last year, it introduced 14 products, including bibigo tteokbokki (hot and spicy rice cake), seaweed snacks, and instant rice, in convenience store chain EzyMart in November.

This year, it released two locally produced products, bibigo Pork & Kimchi Wang (King) Gyoza and bibigo Sliced ​​Cabbage Kimchi, as well as ready-to-heat gimbap​ (rice roll)​ in this market.

As a result, CJ CheilJedang’s Oceania food sales in the second quarter of 2024 grew 51% year-on-year.

On the back of this growth, the firm is actively expanding its product portfolio in the region. For instance, CJ Foods’ Protein Basak Chip and bibigo’s Spring Roll were launched in Costco Australia in August.

In particular, the Protein Basak Chip is a protein-rich crispy popped rice snack made from upcycled rice flakes, which is anticipated to receive positive responses from Australian consumers who are “highly interested in the environment and healthy food”.

This product was born through CJ CheilJedang’s in-house venture project in 2022, and was first distributed outside of Korea, namely in the US, Malaysia and Hong Kong, in December 2023.

Strike while the iron is hot​

CJ CheilJedang announced on August 26 that sales of bibigo’s Room Temperature Tteokbokki in Q2 of this year rose 2.5 times compared to the previous quarter.

According to the firm, the main driver for this growth is the increase in export markets of the product — from 29 at the beginning of 2024 to a total of 41 countries, including the US, Vietnam, Europe, Australia, and South America.

Available in three flavours (original, spicy, cheese), the shelf-stable product debuted in June 2023. As a ready-to-heat item, the representative Korean street food, comprising bite-sized chewy rice cakes and seasoning, can be consumed conveniently.

Notably, the booming response for Room Temperature Tteokbokki has been attributed to a recent surge in popularity of K-street food in Europe, which was sparked off by a reality programme titled Jinny’s Kitchen​.

In the show airing on domestic cable channel tvN and streaming service Amazon Prime Video, the cast opened a temporary Korean restaurant in Iceland where the product was featured, drawing widespread attention to it.

Currently, the product is sold across Europe, including Iceland.

CJ CheilJedang plans to further accelerate the growth by extending the sales channels of bibigo Room Temperature Tteokbokki beyond local Korean marts and online malls to mainstream distribution channels in major global markets.   

“We envision the marketing collaboration with Jinny’s Kitchen to be a great opportunity for consumers around the world to be exposed to K-food, and we plan to continue introducing new products so that more global consumers can experience bibigo and Korean food products,” ​the firm said.