CJ debuts K-food delivery service in UK

A Bibigo pop-up store in Shoreditch, London (CJ CheilJedang)

South Korean food giant CJ CheilJedang announced Monday that it has launched the delivery service brand “Bibigo to-go” in the United Kingdom, in an effort to ramp up Korean food’s presence in the global market.

Under a partnership with the UK-based food brand operator Peckwater Brands, Bibigo to-go is now available on major food delivery platforms including UberEats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat.

The menus were mainly developed from the Bibigo products sold in the UK. Before the official launch, the company ran a demo of its delivery service brand for six weeks, catering recipes and prices to local customers’ tastes.

The finalized signature menus include Korean-style gyoza, fried chicken, tteokbokki and japchae. Based on the reviews and data accumulated from those delivery platforms, the company will change the menus every six months.

Giving momentum to its new service, CJ CheilJedang has also opened a Bibigo pop-up store in Shoreditch, a trendy district in London, for the whole month of November. The pop-up will serve as a testing bed for future business opportunities as well as a meeting point between customers and Korean food, the company said.

In addition to Bibigo to-go menus, the store will also sell limited-edition items such as frozen kimbap and kimchi spring rolls. After thorough reviews, these menus will be officially introduced to the local market, the food giant added.

Seeking new opportunities, the pop-up store will also invite key buyers of the food industry to taste and review Bibigo products.

“While Europe was considered a wasteland of Korean food, their interest in Korean culture has significantly increased in the past few years,” said a CJ CheilJedang official. “Starting from the UK, we will expand K-food throughout the whole European market.”

By Mun So-jeong(munsojeong@heraldcorp.com)