Daejeon Seongsimdang, Last Year's Sales 124.3 Billion KRW... 52% Increase
Operating Profit 31.5 Billion KRW... Leading Paris Croissant by 19.8 Billion KRW
Last year, the operating profit of Seongsimdang, a native bakery brand in Daejeon famous for its "Twigim Soboro," surpassed those of large corporations Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 18th, Seongsimdang (Rosso) recorded sales of 124.31543 billion KRW last year. This is a 52.1% increase from the previous year (81.7 billion KRW). Seongsimdang is the first single bakery brand, not a large franchise, to exceed 100 billion KRW in sales.
During the same period, operating profit reached 31.49638 billion KRW, more than doubling from 15.4 billion KRW the previous year. This significantly exceeds the operating profits of Paris Croissant, which operates Paris Baguette, and CJ Foodville, which operates Tous Les Jours.
Paris Croissant's operating profit last year increased by 5.8% from the previous year to 19.8817 billion KRW, while CJ Foodville's operating profit was 21.42212 billion KRW. CJ Foodville also operates other brands such as VIPS, The Place, and Jeil Jemyunso.
In 2022, Rosso's operating profit was 15.42797 billion KRW, and Paris Croissant's was 18.79994 billion KRW, with Paris Croissant having about 3.4 billion KRW more.
On the 20th of last month at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, Dave Roberts, manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who met Ryu Hyun-jin, tasted Seongsimdang fried soboro and gave a thumbs up. [Photo by Yonhap News]
Seongsimdang started in 1956 as a steamed bun shop in front of Daejeon Station and has operated stores only in Daejeon for 68 years. With a management philosophy of "not opening branches outside Daejeon," it has only four stores: the main store in Eunhaeng-dong, Daejeon Station, Lotte Department Store Daejeon branch, and Daejeon Convention Center. The strong regional identity, to the extent that "Daejeon = Seongsimdang" has become a formula, has highlighted its advantage, making Seongsimdang the top choice for nationwide "bread pilgrimages" (visiting famous bakeries) and maintaining its popularity.
Last month, Seongsimdang again became a topic of conversation when Hanwha baseball player Ryu Hyun-jin gifted Seongsimdang bread to LA Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who visited Korea for the "MLB World Tour Seoul Series." At that time, Roberts was reported to have expressed amazement after tasting Seongsimdang's Twigim Soboro and gave a thumbs-up to the press.
Visitors to Seongsimdang cite generous portions, taste, and cost-effectiveness as its competitive advantages. The signature menu item, Twigim Soboro, is priced at 1,700 KRW each, and the Pantalong Buchu Bread costs 2,000 KRW, which is relatively inexpensive considering the recent surge in ingredient costs. Additionally, the strawberry cake "Strawberry Siru" has gained explosive popularity, with people saying it contains more strawberries than bread, leading to open runs and even premium transactions in secondhand markets.
Seongsimdang donates all leftover bread sold on the same day and actively engages in social contribution activities, including sending bread worth about 30 million KRW monthly to social welfare facilities.
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