Dongwon F&B to accelerate global push with StarKist

COLOGNE, Germany – Dongwon F&B Co., South Korea’s largest canned tuna manufacturer, will break away from its domestic sales-focused business and sharply increase overseas sales, for which its wholly-owned US arm StarKist Co. is expected to serve as a platform, its chief executive said.

Dongwon Industries Co., the holding company of the seafood-to-logistics group, acquired Starkist, the largest US canned tuna company, for $363 million in 2008.

It commanded 47.5% of the US canned tuna market with an operating profit of 126 billion won ($94 million) on sales of 1.1 trillion won in 2022.

"Our goal is to raise the proportion of overseas sales to 20% by 2026," Kim Sung-yong, Dongwon F&B CEO, told The Korea Economic Daily in a recent interview.

Global sales accounted for only 4% of its total sales in 2022. This year, it is targeting 120 billion won in global sales.

"As the growth of the domestic market is slowing due to the population decline, we will actively invest in overseas expansion,” he said on the sidelines of the 2023 Anuga Food Fair held in Cologne between Oct. 7 and 10.

To that end, Dongwon F&B is discussing its first-ever business cooperation with StarKist, Kim said.

Dongwon has not leveraged StarKist's sales networks yet because they produce different types of canned tuna. StarKist manufactures water-based canned products, while Dongwon focuses on tunas containing oil.

“But if we take advantage of the K-food craze and introduce various flavors such as red pepper tuna, we will be able to create synergy,” Kim said.

He took the helm of Dongwon F&B as CEO in December 2022.

M&As

The CEO said the company is hunting for overseas acquisition targets, adding: "We have studied several companies up for sale in developed countries such as the US and in Europe."

At home, its parent Dongwon Group is emerging as a major player in the domestic M&A scene.

It is competing to acquire the country’s top container ship operator HMM Co., a deal estimated at 5 trillion won ($3.7 billion).

Last month, its 88-year-old founder and honorary chairman Kim Jae-chul expressed his determination to take over HMM, saying: “Acquiring HMM is the last dream of my life.”

During the 2023 Anuga Food Fair, Dongwon F&B presented a total of 90 types of products.

CEO Kim said meat alternatives, seaweed snacks and tteok-bokki were its most popular food during the show.

Tteok-bokki is a simmered chewy rice cake made with hot and spicy red pepper sauce and is often served with fishcakes. 

The company and two other Dongwon Group units set up booths at the food fair, occupying the largest area among domestic companies.

With a market capitalization of 592.4 billion won, the share price of Dongwon F&B declined 2.23% to close at 30,700 won on Thursday. The broader Kospi market closed little changed.

Write to Su-Jung Ha at Agatha77@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.