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The Korea Herald
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THE INVESTOR
March 29, 2024

Retail & Consumer

Food companies open cafes, restaurants

  • PUBLISHED :November 17, 2016 - 10:03
  • UPDATED :November 17, 2016 - 10:05
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[THE INVESTOR] Food and snack companies have started opening cafes and restaurants to reach out to consumers, industry officials said on Nov. 17.

Binggrae in March gave its banana-flavored milk, a product that has survived for 40 years, a new twist in March by opening a cafe in downtown Seoul that sells beverages and ice cream based on the milk.

Opened in collaboration with Hyundai Department Store that hosts the cafe at its downtown outlet, Yellow Cafe is making monthly sales of some 100 million won (US$85,178), company officials said.

Last month, it opened a soft ice cream shop at a Lotte Department Store branch in southern Seoul.

Company insiders say the moves are market tests for Binggrae, which is interested in starting a restaurant business.

Orion, synonymous with its most popular snack Choco Pie, is operating a desert cafe, Lab O, in southern Seoul. As its name suggests, the store serves as the company‘s research center for dessert products, getting consumer reactions to different flavors and foods tweaked from its mainstream brands.

Haitai Confectionery & Foods, which recently landed a smash hit with its honey-flavored potato chips, Honey Butter Chips, runs cafe Haitai Ro at two locations in Seoul. The stores sell desserts, as well as character figurines and stuffed animals that enjoy the company’s snacks. Officials at the firm say the cafes are more like “antennae shops” that catch consumers’ preferences.

Lotte Confectionery has Guylian Cafe at the Lotte Department Store’s Lotte World branch that sells desserts made with the Belgian chocolate. Lotte took over the brand in 2008. Lotte separately operates exhibition booths for its own products in southern Seoul.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)

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