25: Chapter 25 Channel Expansion

Light spicy fire chicken noodles sold better than expected, and Chairman Wang Shunyi hadn't had a chance to relax before a new email appeared in his inbox.

The sender was the procurement department of CU convenience stores. He stared at the screen twice, confirming it wasn't spam. CU, the second-largest convenience store chain in Korea, with over 16,000 stores. If they could close this deal, their distribution channel would more than double.

He called Jun-ho over to take a look. After reading it, Jun-ho looked up at him and said, "Schedule a time."

Three days later, the two went to the CU headquarters. In Gangnam District, a twenty-story glass building, people were coming and going in the lobby, employee badges swaying on their chests. The front desk made a call to announce them, then told them to go to the tenth floor.

The conference room wasn't large, but the view outside was excellent; they could see the Jamsil Stadium. After waiting less than five minutes, the door opened, and a man in his forties entered, wearing a gray suit, his tie tied meticulously, his hair combed neatly. He looked at Chairman Wang Shunyi first, then at Jun-ho, and reached out his hand.

"Kim Tae-hoon. CU Procurement Department Supervisor."

"Chairman Wang Shunyi. This is Zhang Junhao, my partner." Chairman Wang Shunyi shook his hand, feeling the other man's palm was dry and firm, a solid handshake.

"Sit." Kim Tae-hoon sat down first, opened a folder, and without any small talk, said directly, "We have been following your products for a while. fire chicken noodles, river snail rice noodles, and the newly released light spicy version have good word-of-mouth among young people. CU wants to introduce your products, but there are two directions we need to confirm with you first."

"Please go ahead."

"First, can you guarantee stable supply for all stores nationwide? CU has over 16,000 stores; this isn't a joke. Is your production capacity enough?"

Jun-ho leaned forward: "It is. Our factory has two production lines with a monthly capacity of over 90,000 packs of fire chicken noodles. If needed, we can add more lines."

Kim Tae-hoon nodded and wrote something in his notebook. "Second, CU hopes you can produce a customized version. It will only be sold at CU and not available elsewhere. It can be a limited flavor or limited packaging. CU needs this exclusivity to attract customers."

Chairman Wang Shunyi thought for a moment and asked, "For a customized version, how would that work specifically?"

"This can be discussed. For example, launching a new flavor, printing the CU logo on the packaging, and selling it only in CU stores. This can help build your brand and also help CU create differentiation." After Kim Tae-hoon finished speaking, he paused and added, "Also, regarding the price, the procurement price for CU will be lower than GS25. About five percent lower. We have a large procurement volume and expect economies of scale."

Chairman Wang Shunyi turned to look at Jun-ho. Jun-ho nodded slightly.

"Five percent is acceptable. But we also have conditions." Chairman Wang Shunyi turned his gaze back, "CU must stock our products in all stores nationwide; it cannot be sold in only a portion of the stores. Also, the shelf time must be at least six months."

Kim Tae-hoon didn't answer immediately, leaning back in his chair for a few seconds. "Six months is fine. But if sales data is poor after six months, CU has the right to adjust or delist it."

"Fair."

Kim Tae-hoon stood up and extended his hand for the second time. "Then that's it for now. The legal department will coordinate with you regarding the specific contract terms."

"Thank you, Supervisor Kim." Chairman Wang Shunyi shook his hand.

Coming out of the CU headquarters, the two stood at the building entrance waiting for a taxi. Jun-ho put his hands in his coat pockets, looked up at the sky, and said, "16,000 stores, Sunyi, just think about it."

"Don't think too much yet." Chairman Wang Shunyi opened the car door, "Let's go back and have a meeting to discuss what flavor the customized version should be."

The company meeting was quick. Minji was also there, sitting next to Chairman Wang Shunyi, already having written several ideas in her notebook.

"Seafood flavor?" Xiuyan suggested one.

"It's already on the market." Jun-ho shook his head.

"Cheese flavor?"

"That exists too."

"How about kimchi flavor?" Minji said. The conference room went quiet for a moment. She continued: "Kimchi is Korea's national food, but there isn't a kimchi-flavored instant noodle yet. It's sour, spicy, and appetizing, and it can pair well with the spiciness of fire chicken noodles."

Chairman Wang Shunyi looked at the words on the whiteboard and thought for a moment. "Let's do kimchi flavor first. Minji, you are responsible for packaging and marketing. Brother Jun-ho, production arrangements. I'll handle the recipe."

For the next two weeks, he immersed himself in the small kitchen again. The kimchi flavor was hard to balance; the sour, spicy, fresh, and sweet tastes had to be balanced, and if any one of them stood out too much, it wouldn't be right. He tried over twenty ratios; some were too sour, like eating vinegar noodles; some were too sweet, like adding syrup; some had spiciness that overwhelmed everything, and you couldn't taste the cabbage.

During the nineteenth attempt, he added a little more apple puree to the sauce, which softened the sourness without the sweetness being overpowering. He added a bit of minced garlic and ginger, and the layers emerged. He cooked the noodles, mixed in the sauce, and served it to Minji.

She tasted a bite, chewed twice, didn't say anything, and picked up another chopstick full. After finishing, she put down her chopsticks and took a sip of water.

"How is it?" he asked.

"Delicious," she said. "Sour, spicy, and appetizing, the kimchi taste is very authentic, and it goes well with the fire chicken noodle sauce."

"Then that's it."

The packaging design was done by Minji and Jieun. With a red background, the front featured an illustration of a head of kimchi, with the words "CU Exclusive" written next to it, and a chili icon in the top right corner indicating the spice level. The back had a line of small print: "Sour, spicy, and appetizing · Classic Korean flavor." Overall, it looked a bit livelier than the regular version and should be eye-catching on the shelf.

The launch day was Thursday. Over 16,000 CU stores stocked it simultaneously, with the first batch covering 50,000 packs. Chairman Wang Shunyi didn't go to the office and went to two CU stores himself. The first one was in Jung-gu; the store wasn't large, and the kimchi fire chicken noodles were displayed in two rows on the shelf, with regular fire chicken noodles and canhe spicy chicken noodles next to them. He stood in front of the shelf for a few minutes; three people passed by, two walked straight past, and one stopped to pick up a pack to look at, flipped it over to check the back, and put it into the shopping basket.

The second store was in Mapo District. When he entered, he happened to see a female student in a school uniform pick up two packs to pay. He followed behind and heard the cashier's "beep" when scanning, and then the student took out a CU membership card from her pocket and swiped it.

The first week's data came out, selling 12,000 packs. Better than expected, but not outrageously so. What really surprised him was the reaction on social media. A blogger bought the limited edition and filmed an unboxing video, with the title "CU Exclusive Kimchi fire chicken noodles, so delicious I repurchased three times." In the comments section, many people asked "Which CU sells it," and "Why doesn't the one downstairs have it?" Some people specifically went to three CU stores before they could buy it, posting a complaint: "CU, can you stock more?"

Chairman Wang Shunyi asked Jun-ho to contact Kim Tae-hoon, and they replenished another 20,000 packs in the second week.

But the good days didn't last two weeks.

That afternoon, Jun-ho returned from outside, carrying a bag of things, his expression not very good. He put the bag on the table, and Chairman Wang Shunyi took a look; the packaging had "Canhe Kimchi fire chicken noodles" printed on it, in a red and white color scheme, looking like it was carved from the same mold as his kimchi fire chicken noodles. Next to it was a line of small print: "GS25 Exclusive."

"When was this released?" Chairman Wang Shunyi picked it up to look.

"Today. It was launched simultaneously at GS25 and Lotte Mart." Jun-ho handed over his phone; the screen showed a photo of a shelf, with Canhe's product placed on the middle shelf, and the price tag said "Special Price 1700 Won." It was 800 won cheaper than the CU exclusive version.

Chairman Wang Shunyi put the noodles back on the table without speaking.

"This is clearly aimed at us." Jun-ho pulled up a chair and sat down, "We launch kimchi flavor, they launch kimchi flavor. We do a CU exclusive, they do a GS25 exclusive. And they lowered the price."

"What about the price?" Minji came in from outside and asked before even sitting down.

"1,700," Jun-ho said.

Minji frowned, didn't reply, and walked to stand next to Chairman Wang Shunyi.

The office was quiet for a while. Outside the window, pigeons were cooing; someone was feeding them on the roof of the building next door.

"Brother Jun-ho," Chairman Wang Shunyi finally spoke, "How do you think he managed to keep up so quickly?"

"Our kimchi noodles took three weeks from R&D to launch. He might have started doing it only after we launched, but with Chan-hyeok's scale, it's not hard to work overtime to rush out a batch of goods. And he doesn't need to do market testing, just copy our concept."

"That means, from now on, whatever we launch, he will launch?"

Jun-ho didn't answer.

Chairman Wang Shunyi stood up and walked to the window. Outside was the gray sky of Seongdong-gu, with colorful quilts hanging on a few old residential buildings.

"No price war." He turned around, looking at Jun-ho and Minji, "We can't afford to fight him. Chan-hyeok has been around for thirty years; losing a few hundred million is nothing to them. If we lose a few hundred million, we'll just close down."

"Then what should we do?" Minji asked.

"Focus on products, focus on speed. If he copies one, we launch two. If he launches two, we launch four. Let him always be running behind us." Chairman Wang Shunyi walked back to the table, picked up the pack of Canhe kimchi noodles, looked at the ingredient list, and put it down again, "Also, his stuff is copied, the ingredients aren't as good as ours. Once consumers eat it more, they will naturally be able to tell the difference."

Jun-ho thought for a moment and nodded. "The product line can be broadened. As I mentioned before, we can work on health directions and regional specialty directions."

"More than that." Chairman Wang Shunyi wrote a few lines on the whiteboard, "Keep doing the CU exclusive version, change the flavor every month. Also, talk to GS25 to see if they want to do an exclusive version. Do both sides; Park Chan-hyeok can't follow two channels at the same time."

"I'll keep an eye on the channels," Minji said.

"Good." Chairman Wang Shunyi thought again, "There is one more thing—consumer word-of-mouth. Our product quality is good, which is the biggest advantage. Xiuyan should continue with the tasting events to let more people taste the difference. As long as consumers recognize us, price won't be an issue."

Jun-ho and Minji both nodded.

It was getting dark outside the window, the streetlights hadn't turned on yet, and the office was only lit by a desk lamp. Chairman Wang Shunyi sat back in his chair, pushed the pack of Canhe kimchi noodles to the corner of the table, opened his notebook, and wrote a few words on a blank page: "New product: Kimchi Soup fire chicken noodles? Doenjang Soup fire chicken noodles?"

The pen tip stopped at the words "Kimchi Soup," and did not move again.

Minji walked over, took a look at what he had written, didn't say anything, gently patted his shoulder, and turned to go out to pour water. The sound of footsteps echoed in the hallway and faded away.