Korea’s Orion to ship bottled water to China to challenge Evian

Orion Holdings Corp., the holding company of South Korea’s confectionary and snack maker Orion Corp., is set to export bottled water to China, the world’s second most populous country, expanding its overseas markets and challenging global premium brands such as Evian.

Orion Holdings also started the food ingredient business based on magma seawater, the underground seawater in South Korea’s top resort island of Jeju used for its bottled water, as the group is seeking new growth drivers in the healthy beverage and bio industries.

The holding company of the famous snack cake Choco Pie maker is scheduled to ship a large amount of its Jeju Yongamsoo bottled water to China for sale on the mainland form later this month.

Orion Holdings aims to export 50 million bottles of Jeju Yongamsoo, hard water with high mineral content, to the country this year and more than double the sales in the market by 2025 through product diversification in line with demand there. Hard water is regarded as premium because it contains high concentrations of magnesium and calcium.

High-end drinking water brands such as France's Evian are gaining popularity on the mainland.

Orion Holdings is already selling its bottled water, the hardness of which is 200 milligrams per liter, in other countries such as the US, Russia, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines and New Zealand.

“Inquiries from overseas buyers are growing as demand for healthy hard water is increasing worldwide,” said an Orion Holdings official. “We aim to develop Jeju Yongamsoo as a world-class brand with Orion’s global network.”

PARTNERS WITH TSINGTAO BEER SELLER

In April 2023, Orion Holdings teamed up with Qingdao Yongping Market Management and Qingdao Sports Development Group Corp., formerly Qingdao Guoxin Culture and Sports Industry, to sell the bottled water in China.

Qingdao Yongping Market Management, which distributes and sells Tsingtao Beer in China, plans to handle Jeju Yongamsoo sales across the country.

Qingdao Sports Development Group is set to develop the water’s brand and design, establish marketing strategies and build sales networks.

Orion Holdings built a bottled water plant in Jeju, a volcanic island, in 2019 for the business.

FOOD INGREDIENT BUSINESS

Orion Holdings started the food ingredient business based on magma seawater as it produced calcium extracted from the seawater in February.

The company succeeded in extracting calcium by concentrating and separating magma seawater in the process of producing Jeju Yongamsoo.

The South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved the calcium as a food ingredient, marking it the first mineral extracted from magma seawater as a food ingredient approved by the government.

The company plans to develop confectionary and beverage products containing calcium from the seawater while commercializing other minerals such as magnesium to create new markets.

Write to Sul-Li Jun at sljun@hankyung.com
 

Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.