Brits to enjoy K-food Bibigo at home with delivery service

South Korean food giant CJ CheilJedang Corp. started the delivery service of its K-food brand Bibigo in the UK to accelerate the expansion of the Asian country’s cuisine in Europe.

CJ CheilJedang said on Monday it launched the Bibigo to go, which the company operates in collaboration with British food delivery franchise Peckwater Brands. The Bibigo to go offers foods, based on menus mainly sold offline in the UK, at major food delivery platforms such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat.

“Interest in Korean cultures has recently been growing in Europe, once a wasteland for K-food,” said a CJ CheilJedang official in a statement. “We aim to expand K-food across Europe from the UK through a strategy to quickly respond to local trends there.”

CJ CheilJedang introduced popular K-foods including fried chicken, tteokbokki and dumplings flavored with Hot Jang – a Korean-style chili sauce for the delivery service. It plans to change menus every six months based on customer feedback.

POP-UP STORE IN SHOREDITCH

The company opened a pop-up store in Shoreditch, a hot area with fashionable bars and clubs in London, to increase opportunities to contact local customers. The store, which will be operated this month, is set to become a testbed for future business expansion.

CJ CheilJedang sells the Bibigo to go menus, as well as frozen kimbap, kimchi spring rolls and other foods, which have yet to be introduced there, at the pop-up store. The company plans to officially launch them reflecting customer feedback.

It also invited buyers of major local retailers to sell Bibigo products through the country’s mainstream retail sector.

CJ CheilJedang established a unit in the UK in May last year with an aim to raise food sales to 500 billion won ($385.2 million) in Europe by 2027. The company acquired German frozen food company Mainfrost in 2018 for the business in the region.

Write to Kyeong-je Han at hankyung@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.