By Kim Ji-soo
Five franchises are stepping up their efforts to advance into the U.S. market with government help.
The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation (aT) has set up a Korea booth at the International Franchise Expo NY 2013 underway at the Jacob K. Javits Center, to help facilitate five Korean franchise groups target the American market.
The five are the chicken franchise Genesis BBQ, Chuncheon Dakgalbi, Dae Dae FC’s Kkuldak, grilled-meat franchise Seoraestor’s Seorae Galmaegi and VS company’s lunchbox set Bentorang. Genesis BBQ already has several shops in the United States, but along with the other companies is seeking to expand in the U.S. and neighboring markets.
These food companies specialize in grilled meat, chicken and lunch boxes. Korean franchise companies have been helped before by aT in their overseas forays. Another Korean franchise, 1962 Tofu, attended the franchise expo in New York last year, after which it opened its first store in Flushing, Queens.
Since 2010, aT has been active in setting up Korea booths at food expos held in Singapore and Shanghai, aiding the franchised restaurants to ink contracts to set up shop there.
“We are hoping that this year’s food expo in New York will give Korean franchised companies a chance to make headway into the American market,” said Kim Jae-soo, the president of aT. “When more Korean food franchises go overseas, it means not only gains in royalties but exports of Korean food ingredients, meaning that we can achieve shared growth between big and small firms in the industry.”
Shared growth is one of the key policies under the Park Geun-hye administration, which essentially is about offsetting the balance in the economy that is largely dominated by large-sized conglomerates, or chaebol, to put small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on the path to growth.
Korean food is slowly attracting the interest of American consumes. First Lady Michelle Obama has disclosed her recipe for kimchi on twitter, “bibimbap” or mixed-rice ads have appeared in New York while Cuba Libre, a Cuban restaurant offers a mix of “samgyeopsal” three-layered pork with rice on its menu.
Meanwhile, the coffee shop Caffe Bene, and Bonchon Chicken are also participating in the expo with individual booths.
The International Franchise Expo NY is the largest in the United States, where last year a total of 334 franchise firms from 94 countries took part. An average of 14,300 visitors visited the expo last year.