"Challenge Your Food Business in Vietnam with Baemin"

Baemin Launches Recruitment for First Trainee Batch in 'Vietnam Food Service Industry Challenge'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] Woowa Brothers announced on the 10th that they will launch a program called the ‘Global Project’ which provides education and supports local exploration for restaurant owners dreaming of expanding overseas. The first region is Vietnam, where Woowa Brothers entered in 2019 and have achieved results.

Woowa Brothers is recruiting trainees for the ‘Vietnam Food Service Challenge’ through their small business education program ‘Baemin Academy’. This program was created to help domestic restaurant owners, who have been struggling due to COVID-19 and other factors, find new growth opportunities abroad. Vietnam’s food service industry has a high growth potential, with an average annual growth rate of 10%. Woowa Brothers plans to provide domestic restaurants with opportunities and information about entering the Vietnamese market and assist them thoroughly in the preparation process to ensure a successful entry.

Recently in Vietnam, there has been an increasing number of successful cases where familiar Korean menus such as Tteokbokki, chicken, Gimbap, and ramen have been localized in Vietnamese style. For example, the domestic chicken franchise brand Chicken Plus opened 25 additional stores in Vietnam last year despite the COVID-19 situation and currently operates 40 stores. A well-known domestic Tteokbokki franchise brand is also approaching the milestone of 70 stores in Vietnam.

To continue the second and third waves of K-food success stories in Vietnam, Woowa Brothers has assembled a team of experts in various fields such as ingredients, distribution, cooking, and localization for this program’s instructors. In the first training session, Kim Choong-young, Head of Baemin Kitchen Vietnam at Woowa Brothers, Lee Jung-eun, Deputy Manager of the Overseas Business Team at The Born Korea, and Yoo Kang-shin, CEO of Chicken Plus Vietnam, will vividly share their experiences and know-how in operating businesses in Vietnam.

Twenty participants will be selected in each of the first and second recruitment rounds, and during the total five-week training period, they will learn about Vietnamese food culture and trends, case studies related to entering Vietnam, local market research and simulation, marketing, corporate establishment, and workforce management. In particular, Baemin plans to continuously support the participants’ market entry through its accumulated experience, local networks, and infrastructure gained from actual overseas market ventures. After completing the five-week face-to-face and online training sessions in both the first and second rounds, two outstanding graduates from each will be selected to receive opportunities for local research exploration in Vietnam.

Kwon Yong-gyu, Head of Value Management at Woowa Brothers, said, "Starting with this Vietnam edition, we will continuously support domestic restaurants’ overseas challenges by utilizing Woowa Brothers’ overseas infrastructure."