A promotional image for Dongdaemun Yupdduk's restaurant in Seongnam's Yatap, Gyeonggi Province / Screen capture from Dongdaemun Yupdduk's homepage

Dongdaemun Yupdduk, one of Korea's major "tteokbokki" franchises that started as a small street market vendor in 2002, has broken its annual sales record by surpassing 100 billion won ($73 million), according to the franchise operator, Hotseasoner, Thursday.

The country's signature spicy street food has maintained popularity while the brand's consumer prices have remained unchanged for the past 12 years. This runs contrary to the country's fried chicken brands, a mega-popular food here for dine-in, take-out and delivery, which have hiked their prices multiple times, arousing public criticism.

Yupdduk's sales in 2023 registered 108.4 billion won, a year-on-year increase of 31.8 percent bagging 2.7 billion won in profit. Since the company registered 58.9 billion won sales in 2020, the annual figures increased to 72.2 billion won and 82.2 billion won in subsequent years.

The brand's most popular dish, a bowl of tteokbokki for three people, is priced at 14,000 won. The company kept the price the same all along under concerns that if the price jumped, the brand's major consumer groups — teenagers and those in their 20s — would instantly turn their backs on the chain.

The company maintained prices even when its key ingredients' prices went up, particularly in 2022 when the Russian invasion of Ukraine sent market shockwaves worldwide.

The price of wheat that year jumped to $354 per ton, a 98 percent increase from 2020. Wheat, alongside imported rice, is the major ingredient of tteokbokki.

Packaging costs also rose that year as the price of plastic products grew. So did costs for utility bills and wages. Despite the rising costs, the company didn't press its franchisees to raise prices. In 2022, the company saw its first operating deficit.

But robust sales kept the company alive. Industry watchers said the company benefitted from the country's fried chicken market where major brands ratcheted up their product prices and saw consumers purchase less. Bhc last December hiked its prices by at least 12.4 percent. Kyochon 1991 raised its prices by 500–3,000 won last year and so did Genesis BBQ in 2022 by 2,000 won.

Within the past few years, the price of a whole fried chicken has gone up from between 15,000 and 20,000 won to nearly 30,000 won. The inflated prices enraged consumers to the point of boycotts being declared against certain brands.

"With soaring market prices continuing for months, many food consumers are going for a low price-high volume trend," an industry analyst said. "Yupdduk has long been considered a brand for spicy food with generous servings. That [image] appears to have driven up the brand's sales consistently."

The analyst added, "The comparatively more expensive fried chicken appears to have lost part of its consumer base to [cheaper] tteokbokki."

Part of the firm's earnings also came from decreased ingredient costs for tteokbokki. According to Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp., the price of wheat in March was $213 per ton, a 47 percent drop from a year earlier.