CU, Baek Jong-won Lunchbox Cumulative Sales Surpass 350 Million Units

Ranked No.1 in Total Sales for 2016 for the First Time
Double-Digit Growth in Dosirak Sales

As the lunchflation (lunch + inflation) phenomenon intensifies recently, CU's Baek Jong-won lunchbox series has surpassed a cumulative sales volume of 350 million units.

A model is introducing Baek Jong-won's lunchbox at CU.
[Photo by BGF Retail]

According to CU, the Baek Jong-won series has led the convenience store ready-meal trend with reasonable prices and high quality since its debut in 2015. Over the past seven years, the average monthly sales volume has reached 4.11 million units, with an average daily sales volume of 130,000 units. This figure is equivalent to 10 million Seoul citizens eating Baek Jong-won ready meals every day for a month without missing a day. The Baek Jong-won lunchbox even became the top-selling product overall for the first time since convenience stores appeared in Korea in 2016-2017, surpassing soju, beer, banana milk, and others.

Riding on the popularity of Baek Jong-won lunchboxes, CU's lunchbox sales have continuously grown every year. The growth rates over the past three years have been double digits, with 22% in 2021, 24.6% last year, and 37.2% this year. The secret to the popularity of Baek Jong-won's ready meals lies in their cost-effectiveness (performance relative to price), with over 200 products released so far. This year, in response to the high-price era, the number of side dishes in Baek Jong-won lunchboxes was increased to 12, and the weight was raised by about 10% compared to existing products. As a result, the Crispy Bulgogi lunchbox sold 500,000 units within one week of its release, and the Spicy Pork lunchbox sold 2.5 million units within three weeks. Looking at sales growth rates by location, university areas saw 42.8%, residential areas 34.2%, office districts 20.9%, tourist spots 15.6%, and industrial zones 14.4%, indicating that mainly people in their 20s and 30s are purchasing these products.