Korea’s gourmet platform Kaviar bets on RMR business

Park Young-sik [Photo by Lee Seung-hwan]

South Korea’s gourmet platform Kaviar is betting on the restaurant meal replacement (RMR) business.

Its Chief Executive Officer Park Young-sik sat with Maeil Business Newspaper to share his ambitious business ideas to use famous chefs’ recipes for RMRs. “All those delicious recipes are a type of intellectual property (IP) rights. We make deals with chefs?the IP owners, to make RMRs or create restaurant brands,” he said.

Park, the son of the founder and owner of Samwon Garden, a well-known barbeque restaurant with more than 40-year history, established Kaviar to launch RMRs based on 155 restaurants, including Michelin three-star restaurants and long-standing small stores. Confident in his business ideas, he is set to focus on creating new brands based on recipes owned by famous chefs. “They have recipes and no time to develop business ideas based on their recipes as they are busy in the kitchen. Kaviar hopes to partner with them to create new business opportunities,” he said.

Kaviar, which attracted funds of 16 billion won ($12,28 million), has recently gained GS Retail’s investment worth 2 billion won for a business partnership in RMRs.