"Building on our overwhelming share of the domestic B2B sauce market, we plan to rapidly capture the global B2C market as well."
At Dongwon Home Food's Chungju plant in North Chungcheong Province on the 15th, raw materials including flour, gochujang, mayonnaise, and corn syrup were continuously fed into production lines. Sauce products that had gone through portioning, blending, filling, and packaging moved quickly along automated equipment before being shipped to franchises and distribution channels at home and abroad. Son Jae-ho, head of the Chungju plant, said, "We currently supply sauces to major domestic franchises including Pizza Hut, BBQ, BHC, Kyochon Chicken, Goobne Chicken, and KFC." He added, "As K-food's global standing has risen recently, we are accelerating our push into the overseas consumer sauce market with Vivid Kitchen at the forefront."
The Chungju plant's utilization rate reached 101.47% last year, exceeding its designed capacity by relying on overtime and extra shifts to meet demand. The growth of the B2C sauce brand Vivid Kitchen has been steep. Since its launch in 2020, the brand has more than doubled in sales every year. Cumulative sales on major domestic e-commerce channels such as Coupang and Kurly are approaching 20 million units. Since 2024, it has posted average annual growth of 180–200%, and monthly output, which was 30–40 tons in the early days, has grown more than tenfold to over 300 tons.
Growth has been rapid overseas as well. After entering Amazon in the U.S. last year, Vivid Kitchen broke into the top ranks of the sauce category, with first-quarter U.S. sales surging about 600% year on year. Dongwon Home Food is also expanding into local retail channels such as Sam's Club and Superior Grocers. At a recent Costco event in the Los Angeles area, sales reached 150% of the prepared volume. Vivid Kitchen is rolling out Korean-style sauces worldwide, including kimchi-based "Kimchi Salsa" and "Kimchi Chipotle Mayo," as well as "Gochujang Hot Sauce" and "Bulgogi BBQ." It is exporting primarily to the United States, along with Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Singapore.
Dongwon Home Food previously produced sauces at its Asan plant but built the new Chungju plant in 2019 to meet rising demand. Last year it added one production line at each of the Asan and Chungju plants, and another line is currently under construction with a target launch in the first half of this year. The company has also secured an 8,000-pyeong site near the Chungju plant for further expansion. It expects Vivid Kitchen sauce output to more than double this year compared with last year.
Vichef, the company's B2B sauce brand, is also growing steadily. Since its launch in 2009, Vichef has expanded to about 400 products spanning sauces, dressings, broth bases, and frozen foods, while pursuing customized R&D and dedicated product development tailored to partner needs. Vichef's sales have grown an average of 55% annually over the past five years and rose more than 30% last year. Overseas, exports are expanding in tandem with the global expansion of Korean franchises. A Dongwon Home Food official said, "By supplying sauces to Goobne Chicken and BHC overseas stores and to McDonald's in Taiwan, B2B sauce exports have grown 5–10% annually over the past five years." The official added, "Going forward, we plan to grow our overseas business by expanding into new K-sauce categories such as tteokbokki powders."
