The Domestic Market is Saturated... K-Chicken Expands Overseas

Countries of Expansion Include North America, Southeast Asia, Japan, Europe, and More
BBQ Has the Most Overseas Stores... Focused on North America

Domestic chicken franchises are expanding into overseas markets. With the domestic market virtually saturated, they plan to accelerate their previously slow overseas expansion in the post-COVID-19 era.

bhc Chicken's 'Hot Fried Combo'.
Photo by bhc Chicken

According to the chicken industry on the 16th, Genesis BBQ currently operates about 700 stores in 57 countries. Among them, the United States has the most with 250 stores, followed by Canada with 100, Taiwan with 24, and Japan with 22. Additionally, stores are distributed in China, Southeast Asia, Panama, and other regions.

BBQ, which entered the overseas market starting with Shanghai, China in 2003, is now focusing particularly on the United States, a country where the results of 20 years of effort are beginning to show. Before COVID-19, in 2019, there were only 58 stores in the U.S., but that number has nearly quadrupled at a rapid pace.

Thanks to this, BBQ's global business sales, based on combined sales from directly operated and franchise stores, doubled from 58.5 billion KRW in 2020 to 117.8 billion KRW in 2021, and last year, the franchisor's (directly operated stores and headquarters) sales alone increased by 78.9% year-on-year to 17.2 billion KRW.

Yoon Hong-geun, chairman of BBQ, has expressed his ambition to increase the number of stores worldwide to 50,000 by 2030.

A BBQ official said, “The United States is the birthplace of the franchise industry and the country where the chicken business first started. We expect that succeeding and establishing a foothold here before expanding to other countries will make it easier to expand into Central and South America, Europe, and beyond.” He added, “For a native Korean franchise brand to grow in the U.S., the chicken homeland, and receive royalties back to Korea is also a way to promote national prestige in the modern era.”

Kyochon F&B, which entered the overseas market starting with the U.S. in 2007, currently operates a total of 64 stores in Malaysia (34 stores), Indonesia (9), China (7), Thailand (6), the United Arab Emirates (UAE, 5), and the U.S. (3).

Kyochon F&B's overseas business sales last year amounted to 17.6 billion KRW, with an average sales growth rate of 24.7% over the past three years.

In the long term, they plan to increase the number of overseas stores to over 500 within the next five years. In February, they signed a master franchise agreement with a local company aiming to open their first store in Canada within the year.

The current main focus among overseas countries is Southeast Asia, centered on Malaysia. This is because local people have a high interest in Korean Wave (Hallyu) culture and a strong preference for Korean food.

In the U.S. market, through their local corporation 'Kyochon USA,' they operate three stores near Los Angeles and plan to expand stores to the U.S. mainland based in Hawaii within the year to broaden their global territory.

bhc Chicken is a latecomer in overseas market expansion. Since opening a directly operated store in Hong Kong in 2018, they currently operate one store in Singapore, two in Malaysia, and one in the U.S.

Although sales were still low at 691.14 million KRW as of the end of last year, which is the smallest among the top three domestic chicken companies, they plan to actively enter the Southeast Asian market based on their first master franchise store opened last year in Malaysia and the store opened this year in Singapore.

A bhc Chicken official said, “We will consolidate the know-how accumulated from operating overseas directly operated stores and multiple dining brands and make this year the first year of overseas market expansion, accelerating our business speed.”

Professor Choi Cheol of the Department of Consumer Economics at Sookmyung Women's University said, “Chicken is one of the easiest businesses to start after retirement in Korea, so there are too many domestic stores. As Korea's national status rises globally and its popular culture becomes widely known, foreigners' interest in Korean food has naturally increased. Developing various chicken recipes that foreigners would like and entering overseas markets is a positive development.”