Home Baking Craze... Shinsegae Food's Frozen Dough Sales Up 43%

Shinsegae Food Butter Mini Croissant

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] As people have become accustomed to staying at home due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the number of consumers baking their own bread has increased.

According to Shinsegae Food on the 2nd, sales of frozen dough for home baking from January to May increased by 43% compared to the same period last year. Last year, sales of frozen dough also rose by 41% compared to 2019, and this year the growth trend continues steadily.

Shinsegae Food analyzed that this increase is due to the expanded distribution of home baking appliances such as air fryers and waffle makers, and consumers tired of meal preparation during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic preferring croissants and bread as meal substitutes, making frozen dough that allows easy bread making at home popular.

In fact, Shinsegae Food’s ‘Butter Mini Croissant’ and sandwiches, croffles, etc., which are highly versatile as simple breakfast substitutes, have become the best sellers with monthly sales reaching 16,000 units, followed by bread eaten with jam or butter.

To compensate for the disadvantage of frozen dough that requires long thawing and cooking times, the sales of ‘Milk & Honey Parbaked Meal Bread 3 Types’ launched by Shinsegae Food in April also increased sharply by 223% compared to the previous month.

Parbaked dough is dough that has been partially baked about 85-90% and then rapidly frozen, and it is characterized by allowing you to enjoy the taste and aroma of bakery bread by cooking it in an air fryer for about 5-8 minutes. The three types of ‘Milk & Honey Parbaked Meal Bread’ are products developed to easily prepare and enjoy at home the most popular meal substitute breads from the Milk & Honey store operated by Shinsegae Food within E-Mart, including ‘24-Layer Croissant,’ ‘24-Layer Mini Croissant,’ and ‘16-Layer Danish Bread.’

In particular, the ‘Milk & Honey Parbaked Meal Bread’ was released exclusively for online sales, reflecting the trend of increasing purchases of home baking ingredients through online malls. SSG.com, which sells various frozen doughs, saw its dough sales increase by 717% in 2022 compared to 2019, and from January to April this year, sales also rose by 30% compared to the same period last year, showing steady growth.

A Shinsegae Food official said, “As demand for home baking products continues to increase mainly through online malls, we are currently maximizing factory operation rates to produce more,” adding, “In the future, we will expand the lineup of frozen dough that can be cooked in various ways at home according to taste, and diversify sales channels so that consumers can easily purchase them.”