An employee at Nongshim's Neoguri instant noodle store in Myeong-dong, central Seoul, prepare instant noodles in a noodle cooker, Friday. Korea Times photo by Ko Dong-hwan

Nongshim, one of the nation's top instant noodle makers, is directly appealing to foreign visitors to steal the limelight from its more profitable rival Samyang Foods, which has been riding high on its globally popular Buldak noodles.

As a part of the efforts, Nongshim opened an instant noodle restaurant in Myeong-dong, a tourism hotspot in central Seoul, Wednesday. Called "Neoguri's instant noodle store," named after Neoguri, one of its most popular products, the store offers a variety of Nongshim's instant noodles for visitors to select.

When customers make their pick, workers prepare the instant noodles on cookers at the store. There are also extra toppings available like egg, bean sprouts, green onions and rice cakes.

“I like spicy foods, and Korean instant noodles have different spicy flavors. So I tried this place,” a Taiwanese visitor to the store told The Korea Times, Friday.

Two Japanese visitors said the store got their attention because of a raccoon mascot out front that attracted their attention. Neoguri in Korean means raccoon, which is the logo of Nongshim's 41-year-old product.

“I like how the store has a variety of selections,” one of them said, pointing at the more than 20 different types of instant noodle packages on display.

The store is Nongshim's latest measure to expand its contact with noodle lovers visiting Korea. The restaurant is located at one of Hotel Skypark locations and is a few steps away from Myeong-dong Station. The location is literally at the center of activity, in an area frequented by foreign tourists.

The restaurant is a start of Nongshim's partnership with Hotel Skypark. Before the restaurant opened, the hotel ran an instant noodle café at the same place, selling noodles of multiple brands. After the partnership, the store turned into the restaurant dedicated to Nongshim. Nongshim supplies the restaurant while the hotel manages it.

Visitors to Neoguri's instant noodle store look through Nongshim's instant noodle products before making their orders, Friday. Korea Times photo by Ko Dong-hwan

“The previous cafe ran a system where visitors cooked their own noodles,” said Lee Ha-mee, sales deputy head manager at the hotel's sales & marketing group. “But after we saw some visitors having trouble cooking their own noodles, we started cooking for them. We maintained the system after introducing the new restaurant.”

The restaurant attracted foreign visitors immediately after it opened. It sold over 400 instant noodle products on Wednesday and Thursday each. According to Lee, over 90 percent of the visitors were foreigners, mostly Japanese, Americans and Canadians.

Hotel Skypark has eight locations nationwide with four in Myeong-dong. It plans to open another one next month in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, and will have a similar snack place there.

“There will be a swimming pool inside the new hotel. Next to the pool, we'll sell Nongshim products. We're discussing with the company whether it's going to be another Neoguri restaurant, a pop-up store or an instant noodle stand,” Lee said.

Nongshim's latest move comes as the company's operating profit this year has been continuously outpaced by Samyang. The company anticipates its partnership with Hotel Skypark to generate enough sales from foreign tourists to catch up with Samyang.

According to local market analyst group FnGuide, Samyang is expected to see 384 billion won ($278 million) in sales for the second quarter, a 34.64 percent jump from last year, and operating profit of 76.8 billion won, a 74.3 percent increase. However, it released a grimmer outlook for Nongshim, predicting 878 billion won in sales, a 4.9 percent jump from last year, and operating profit of 51.7 billion won, down by 3.67 percent.

Nongshim saw a reduced operating profit in the first quarter, too. While sales saw a 1.4 percent year-on-year rise to 872 billion won, operating profit saw a 3.6 percent year-on-year drop to 61.4 billion won.

Samyang, in the same quarter, saw 386 billion won in sales and an 80.1 billion won operating profit, year-on-year jumps by 57 percent and 235 percent, respectively. Including Ottogi, another instant noodle giant here, Nongshim was the only company among the big 3 which saw a drop in its quarterly operating profit.

Regarding its first-quarter performance, Nongshim said that despite the sales, prices for raw materials and operation costs jumped, causing the fall in operating profit.

Nongshim's latest marketing initiative, however, can benefit from Korea's rising overall instant noodle exports. According to Korea Customs Service, the second quarter saw over $100 million in exports each month, contributing to nearly $320 million in exports altogether. It was a 34.3 percent jump from the previous year.