"From Kongbiji to Hotteok"... GS Shop Launches Food Startup Incubation Program Products for the First Time

Meat Noodles and Spicy Meat Noodles of 'Donbulije Dam'.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] GS Shop announced on the 21st that it will introduce products developed through the food startup incubation program ‘Next Foodicon’ for the first time via mobile live commerce.

GS Shop will showcase ‘Seoul Kongbiji’ on ‘Shoppy Live’ at 6 p.m. that day. Seoul Kongbiji is a popular restaurant that started in Munjeong-dong, Seoul in 2010. It participated in GS Retail’s Next Foodicon Season 2 and is launching healthy meals made from 100% domestically grown soybeans as home meal replacements (HMR). In this broadcast, two packs each of Kongbijitang and Kimchi Kongbiji Jjigae will be sold at a 20% discount from the regular price.

On the 22nd, ‘Donbulije Dam’s’ Meat Noodles and Spicy Meat Noodles will be introduced, and on the 27th, ‘Samcheongdong Hotteok’ will be featured. Donbulije Dam is a well-known restaurant famous for making dishes using ingredients sourced from Jeju Island in the traditional way. Samcheongdong Hotteok is characterized by its unique dough made by mixing over ten ingredients such as lotus root, yam, and bamboo salt, along with various fillings.

Earlier, GS Retail launched Next Foodicon Season 2 and recruited local restaurants or small food startup teams to jointly develop mega-hit products. The final selected local restaurants or small startup teams were provided with professional solutions from Wecook, which operates an F&B business platform, and manufacturing matching and product development services from Open the Table.

A GS Retail official said, “This Next Foodicon aimed to discover local restaurants and create HMR products so that customers can easily access them anywhere in the country,” adding, “Especially, the products introduced through Shoppy Live have undergone rigorous home shopping screening and QA processes, so we expect them to meet high customer standards.”