Dongwon opens new home meal plant in Seoul

Dongwon Home Food employees place various ready-to-eat meals into styrofoam boxes at the company’s newly opened home meal replacement (HMR) plant in Seoul, Wednesday. In addition to introducing a wide range of high-quality foods, the food service unit of Dongwon Group will expand its sales channels and deliver products in a safe and speedy manner to become a leading HMR company. / Courtesy of Dongwon Home Food

By Lee Hyo-sik

Dongwon has opened a new home meal replacement (HMR) plant in Seoul to capitalize on growing demand for ready-to-eat meals as Koreans are cooking at home less amid the increasingly hectic modern lifestyle.

The soaring number of single-member households has also expanded the country’s HMR market, prompting Dongwon and other food service firms to bolster production facilities.

Dongwon Home Food CEO Shin Young-su said at a press conference Wednesday that the company will become one of Korea’s largest HMR makers. He also said its two brands _ The Banchan and The Charim _ have been receiving favorable responses from health-conscious consumers for their hundreds of tasty side dishes, soups and other meals.

“The opening of the new Dongwon Standard Central Kitchen on a 7,260-square-meter site in Seoul is just the beginning,” Shin said.

“We will continue to expand our R&D activities to develop technologies that enable us to keep foods fresh for a longer period of time, and introduce healthier meals using homegrown ingredients for increasingly health-conscious consumers.”

He expects The Banchan brand, which offers 300 kinds of side dishes, soups and other foods, will generate 200 billion won ($177 million) in annual sales by 2021, up from 22.5 billion won in 2016.

“Korea’s HMR market reached 2.3 trillion won last year and is projected to grow at a double-digit rate for the foreseeable future,” Shin said.

“The opening of our new HMR plant, which will emerge as our new cash cow, is a timely business decision. We will unveil an array of new foods in line with rapidly changing consumer needs.”

Dongwon acquired The Banchan brand last July for 30 billion won. Since it was established in 2008, the online HMR shop has become one of the country’s fastest-growing online food delivery companies.

Dongwon combined it with its own The Charim brand, specializing in offering low-salt and stamina-boosting meals, to more effectively serve diverse consumer needs.

“The two brands can offer a wide range of meals, which taste just like real homemade food. Our menu development team, consisting of seven professional chefs, has come up with universal recipes for all the dishes to guarantee consistent taste,” Shin said.

“In addition to preparing tasty and nutritious dishes, delivering them to consumers in a prompt and safe manner is very important for HMR makers. So we have adopted an advanced dual mode picking system, a first among local food companies.”

To expand its customer base, Dongwon will secure new online and offline sales channels by working together with e-commerce sites, as well as with department stores and discount stores.

“We are currently serving about 280,000 customers but we would like to serve more,” the CEO said.