Samyang Foods (003230) is setting up an independent development system in the United States to plan new products and test their commercial viability. With North America growing in importance — its U.S. unit's sales have now surpassed those of its China unit — the company aims to strengthen its ability to develop products tailored to local consumer demand. The move is seen as a strategy to broaden its lineup beyond ramen, using the distribution network built around Buldak stir-fried noodles, and to establish a new-business base reaching into Latin America.
Samyang America, the company's U.S. unit, is pushing to establish a next-generation "Innovation Lab" dedicated to new product development and market testing, according to food industry sources on the 20th. The unit will turn new business ideas into concrete plans, build prototypes, conduct consumer evaluations and decide whether products go to full launch. The core of the plan is to add product development and commercialization functions to an existing structure centered on sales, in which products made at the Korean headquarters are supplied to U.S. distributors.
The new organization comes amid growth in the U.S. market. As recently as 2024, Samyang Foods' China unit posted sales of 411.1 billion won, above the 378.7 billion won at its U.S. unit. Last year, however, U.S. sales rose to 595.2 billion won, overtaking the China unit's 580.4 billion won for the first time. In the first half of this year, the U.S. unit widened the gap with sales of 389.1 billion won against 347.4 billion won in China. With overseas sales accounting for about 80% of total earnings, the United States has established itself as a key growth market.
Samyang Foods has expanded its business by supplying Buldak stir-fried noodles and other products made in Korea to major U.S. retail channels including Walmart, Costco and Kroger. Going forward, it plans to further strengthen its localization strategy by analyzing consumer tastes and food consumption trends on the ground and reflecting them from the product planning stage. The Innovation Lab will have research and development functions to assess the potential of ingredients and manufacturing processes and to build early prototypes. It will gauge reactions to products through its own consumer panels, tastings and sensory evaluations, and will also pursue surveys and virtual consumer testing using generative artificial intelligence. The aim is to bring in-house some of the work previously outsourced to market research firms, allowing the company to identify new consumer demand more quickly.
The company will also set up a process to verify marketability through small-scale sales rather than immediately supplying developed products to large distribution networks. The approach uses direct-to-consumer (DTC) online sales, select brick-and-mortar stores and digital channels to check consumer purchasing response, appropriate pricing and product competitiveness. Depending on sales results, products will be improved or business direction adjusted, while products with proven commercial viability will move to a full distribution rollout.
The new-business development is seen as an attempt to diversify a product portfolio concentrated on Buldak. Samyang America is working to build up a new "better for you" brand. Along with broadening its lineup into ready-to-eat meals and sauces, it is reviewing the potential to develop foods using alternative proteins, fermentation technology and functional ingredients.
In May, Samyang Foods filed applications for the trademarks "CHOSUN NURUNGJI" and "JOSEON NURUNGJI" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The designated goods include nurungji (crisped scorched-rice snacks), rice crackers, and grain snacks and chips. In June, it filed the trademark "CHIKKIPPI" twice. The designated goods cover a wide range of foods, including convenience meals using chickpeas, hummus and beans, tofu patties and snacks, as well as high-protein cereal bars, popcorn, bread, sauces and desserts. A Samyang Foods official said, however, that "no specific products or launch plans related to these trademarks have been confirmed yet."
The U.S. unit's scope of business is also gradually widening. Samyang America is strengthening functions such as registering products for sale in Mexico and other Latin American markets, adjusting packaging and labeling to meet local rules, and handling regulatory requirements. It is also expanding its capacity for logistics network design linking Canada, Mexico and Latin America, as well as third-party logistics (3PL) operations. The strategy is to extend new brands whose consumer response has been verified in the United States into neighboring countries. An industry official said strengthening new-business development functions in the United States can be seen as an attempt to extend the local sales base secured on the back of Buldak's popularity into other food categories, adding that it is significant in that it establishes a system for continuously identifying new brands matched to local consumer demand, separately from expanding exports of existing flagship products.