Spectators at the Professional Golfers Association's "3M Open" tour held at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota, taste CJ CheilJedang's Bibigo food in this 2019 file photo. Courtesy of CJ CheilJedang

By Kim Jae-heun

The country's largest food firm, CJ CheilJedang, has restructured its business to target the European market, where Korean food is still struggling to attract consumers. It plans to localize the taste of popular Korean foods like kimchi, dumplings and fried chicken for European customers through its Bibigo brand.

CheilJedang announced on Tuesday that it will split the department in charge of its overall food business in two: the global headquarters and the domestic food team. The former will take charge of marketing, R&D and manufacturing in overseas markets. The latter will fully focus on the Korean market.

The new global business plan begins in England, where the company will establish a corporation in the first half of this year. The company will be used as an outpost for the European market.

England is the biggest convenience food market in Europe, as well as the country that imports the most processed Korean food. CheilJedang sees success in England as a prior step to expanding its business on the European continent.

The motivation behind the food firm's ambition in the European market is its growth potential. The size of the European convenience food market stood at 8 trillion won ($6.73 billion) as of 2019, and has grown by an average of 3.9 percent every year since 2015.

Bibigo logged sales of more than 420 million won in the U.S. and 160 billion won in China, but its revenue barely reached 100 billion won in Europe.

"Bibigo's overall sales surpassed 2 trillion won for the first time last year. In order to achieve 3 trillion won, it needs to improve its business performance in Europe," a CheilJedang official said.

CheilJedang first entered the European market in 2006 after acquiring the German food firm Mainfrost, which it uses as a dumpling production base in the region. As of 2021, CheilJedang has expanded its business into 20 countries in Europe and increased its dumpling sales by 70 percent year-on-year.

The company will specify customized business strategies for different countries too. In Eastern Europe, CheilJedang plans to expand "Bibigo To-Go" stores in the form of "shops-in-shops" at large grocery stores.

Last month, it opened the first Bibigo To-Go store at Carrefour in Romania to offer 20 food items including fried chicken and dumplings.

"Through the restructuring of the food firm, the company will further enhance the driving force of overseas businesses and work towards accelerating its goals in the global scene," a CheilJedang official said.

Bibigo will increase its market share in the United States this year. In China, the company plans to focus on online retail channels, where the young customers purchase a lot of dumplings, chicken and home meal replacement products. In Vietnam, CheilJedang will mainly produce products such as kimchi, processed rice and seasoning sauces.

Meanwhile, CJ Group heir Lee Sun-ho, who was recently appointed to an executive director position, will lead the global operations at CheilJedang. His company management succession is predicted to speed up, as he will be taking the key role in overseas operations.