Pepero Expands Globally: Aiming to Become a 1 Trillion Won Global Brand

Lotte Wellfood's 'Pepero' Celebrates 42 Years
Explosive Popularity Since 'Pepero Day'
Cumulative Sales Reach 2.2 Trillion Won

First launched in 1983, Lotte Wellfood's 'Pepero' brand has become a beloved national snack in South Korea, enjoyed by people of all ages. Its unique design features a long stick-shaped biscuit coated with chocolate. Now in its 42nd year as of 2025, Pepero gained explosive popularity following the advent of 'Pepero Day.' Since the introduction of Pepero Day in the mid-1990s, cumulative sales have reached approximately 2.24 trillion won as of last year.

This year, Lotte Wellfood has selected Stray Kids as the official ambassador for Pepero, aiming to infuse the brand with a unique and trendy appeal by leveraging the group's global influence. In addition, through the 'Pepero Agent:P' recruitment campaign, 111 global creators will participate in four rounds of survival missions, with the final 11 being selected as AGENT:P. These 11 AGENT:P members will be invited to Korea in early November to experience Pepero and Pepero Day firsthand, and will have the opportunity to promote the brand worldwide via social networking services (SNS).

Lotte Wellfood plans to develop Pepero into a global mega-brand with annual sales of 1 trillion won. The company aims to make Pepero one of the global top 10 and the number one brand in Asia by 2035, and will continue efforts such as expanding exports to Southeast Asia and North America, as well as establishing overseas production lines.

Last year, Lotte designated India as the first overseas production base for the Pepero brand and invested 2.1 billion rupees (approximately 33 billion won) in new facilities at the Haryana plant of its local subsidiary, Lotte India, for local production of Pepero. This year, the company aims to begin full-scale local production in India in the second half of the year by securing unused space in the Haryana plant and building automated production lines for high-demand products such as Original Pepero and Crunky Pepero. The new production lines will enable direct supply of Pepero for both the Indian domestic market and exports to neighboring countries, replacing the previous system of exporting all products from Korea.