Strategic Partnership with JSG
Full-Scale Entry into the B2B Catering and Food Ingredients Market
On April 29, alternative food foodtech company Intake announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with JSG, a B2B (Business-to-Business) catering specialist, to make a full-scale entry into the B2B catering and food ingredients market.
Intake has completed an investment agreement to acquire a major stake in JSG, and plans to pursue joint growth through the strategic partnership between the two companies, with preparations for an initial public offering (IPO) to begin in the near future.
Founded in Cheonan in 2002, JSG currently operates cafeteria and catering systems for various companies nationwide and also runs a food ingredient distribution business, making it a leading catering specialist in the central region of Korea.
Intake will secure a B2B catering network that provides approximately 3 million meals annually at more than 100 JSG locations nationwide. The company also plans to establish a platform to supply about 50 types of innovative alternative food ingredients, developed by Intake, through JSG's network.
Established in 2013, Intake is a foodtech company that develops a variety of alternative foods, including alternative wheat, alternative sugar, alternative meat, and alternative eggs. Riding the recent trend toward sustainable and healthy food consumption, Intake completed a Series C investment round worth 15 billion KRW in early April, bringing its total accumulated investment to 30 billion KRW.
Intake and JSG plan to pursue growth along three strategic directions while maintaining independent management structures. First, to grow their existing group catering and catering business, the companies will combine Intake's healthy food ingredient technology with JSG's menu development expertise to provide client companies with healthy and delicious wellness catering services that are low in sodium, low in sugar, and high in protein. They expect this to naturally maximize the synergy within the value chain of both companies.
In addition, through an aggressive business expansion strategy, they plan to secure new orders worth more than 10 billion KRW annually from industrial complexes in the central region centered on Cheonan, and to open more than 50 new business sites in the Seoul metropolitan area based on upgraded catering services. At the same time, they aim to expand mobile catering services to major industrial clusters and care schools in Gyeonggi Province, including Suwon and Pangyo, to drive further growth.
Finally, leveraging Intake's capabilities in alternative ingredient and product development, the companies plan to develop private brand (PB) food ingredient products and expand their reach into domestic and international food ingredient distribution through a bolt-on strategy for the food ingredient distribution platform.
JSG CEO Song Honggu stated, "We expect the combination of JSG's solid catering infrastructure and Intake's innovative food ingredient technology to create strong synergy in the market," adding, "With this partnership, the two companies aim to grow into a specialized catering and food ingredient distribution company with annual sales in the 100 billion KRW range within three years."
Intake CEO Han Nokyeop commented, "Through this strategic partnership, we have established a stable business structure for both B2C and B2B, and at the same time, by securing a B2B platform for expanding our core food ingredients, we will work with JSG to concretize our IPO plans in the near future."
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