Kwon Seong-joon, left, made chestnut tiramisu, his dessert creation from "Culinary Class Wars" on Netflix, a new product for BGF Retail's CU. Courtesy of BGF Retail
The country's mega convenience franchise firms are launching ambitious new items, riding on the popularity of the trendy Netflix show "Culinary Class Wars," industry officials said on Thursday.
BGF Retail and GS Retail, which lead the domestic market, have promptly responded to the cooking competition show's stir among domestic foodies. While convenience stores have captured a significant number of consumers from the country's dine-in market with their affordable prices and variety of choices, the new releases are expected to further attract hungry patrons.
CU, a convenience franchise brand run by BGF, teamed up with the show's ultimate winner Kwon Seong-joon, owner and chef at Italian restaurant Via Toledo in Seoul. The franchise is releasing one of Kwon's most popular creations on the show — his chestnut tiramisu — later this week.
Kwon, who competed with the stage nickname Napoli Matfia, earned raves from the show's judges with his dessert creation.
CU on Tuesday accepted preorders for the tiramisu before putting it on store shelves on Saturday. All 20,000 sold out in less than 20 minutes, the company said.
Kwon created the tiramisu during the third round of the show where participants were challenged to make a creative dish using only products available in convenience stores. The chef used Yonsei marron cream bread and a pack of Heyroo baked chestnuts, all sold at CU stores. According to BGF, sales of the bread and chestnut from Oct. 1 to Oct. 6 jumped by 31.1 percent and 42.7 percent, respectively, compared to the previous week.
Four chefs who appeared on the Netflix show have turned their signature dishes into products for GS25. Courtesy of GS Retail
A BGF official said that it had signed a contract with Kwon and would roll out other items following the tiramisu's launch.
“We'll check how well the tiramisu performs in the market and then decide which item to introduce next,” they said.
GS Retail, the operator of GS25 stores and official partner of Netflix, is releasing new food products by four chefs from the show this month. These include a boiled pork dish, a French toast sandwich, seafood rice stew, "mala xiang guo" (spicy stir-fry hotpot), oden stew and beef udon.
The products are outcomes of the intellectual property (IP) partnership GS Retail signed with Netflix last year.
“The show's popularity has made booking at the chefs' actual restaurants difficult. So we have decided to promptly roll out their signature creations as our products through our IP collaboration with Netflix,” a GS25 official said.
7-Eleven said it was also planning to borrow ideas from the show for its upcoming products.
IP collaboration is proving to be an effective market boost technique for the major convenience franchises. 7-Eleven used the strategy for Japanese entertainment company Sanrio and the Korean professional football league K League, launching an FC 7-Eleven pop-up store in Seoul and Busan. Emart24 also collaborated with the military survival competition “The Iron Squad W” on Channel A and the Hollywood movie “Venom: The Last Dance” for new products.