CU’s Dubai chocolate sales top $7.46 mn

CU’s Dubai-style chocolate released in July. [Courtesy of BGF Retail Co.]

South Korean convenience store chain CU saw its sales surge after introducing Dubai-style chocolate in July 2024. According to BGF Retail, CU’s parent company, sales of this chocolate surpassed 10 billion won ($7.46 million) within two months of its release. Despite being two months into the launch, Dubai-style chocolate continues to sell out at many locations, leading analysts to speculate that CU’s third-quarter revenue for 2024 could rival or even surpass that of GS25.

CU launched Dubai-style chocolate on July 6th, 2024, followed by the “Neighbor’s Chubby Dubai Chocolate Cookie” on July 18th. CU had sold 2.8 million units of these two products as of the end of August, generating 11 billion won in revenue.

The Dubai-style chocolate originates from a dessert company in the United Arab Emirates’ Dubai. It combines pistachio spread and kadaif, a traditional Middle Eastern noodle-like pastry, inside the chocolate. The product gained global attention, especially among Gen Z, after famous UAE influencer Maria Behara posted a video of herself enjoying the chocolate on TikTok in 2023.

Another top-selling product at CU in 2024 has been the fresh fruit highball, which is available in lemon and lime. Launched in April, the alcohol drink saw nearly 20 billion won in sales in July and August alone, becoming so popular that it has outsold traditional beverages like beer and soju. Together, the Dubai-style chocolate and fresh fruit highball brought in over 30 billion won in sales in the past two months.

These strong sales are narrowing the revenue gap between CU and its main competitor, GS25. CU trailed GS25 by 913 billion won in annual revenue in 2019, but that gap shrank to just 114 billion won by 2023. The difference had further decreased to 37.8 billion won as of June 2024.

CU and GS25 are each other’s main rivals in the Korean convenience store industry. While CU has led in store numbers and profit margins in recent years, GS25 continues to maintain the top spot in sales. “Our store sales remain the highest in the industry, and this trend is unlikely to change anytime soon,” a GS25 official said.