[비즈한국] Shinsegae Food031440 is phasing out its premium bakery brand, ‘The Menagerie.’ The company is set to launch the French bakery brand ‘BO&MIE’ on February 28, following the closure of the The Menagerie store at Shinsegae Department Store’s Gangnam branch on February 27. Given Shinsegae Food’s history of launching and subsequently withdrawing from various food businesses, attention is focused on whether its new premium bakery brand will find success in the market.
The Menagerie, Shinsegae Food’s long-standing premium bakery brand, will close its doors for the last time on February 27. Launched in 2005, The Menagerie once operated in Shinsegae Department Store’s main, Gangnam, Yeongdeungpo, and Centum City branches, but its footprint gradually shrank, leaving only the Gangnam location until now.
The Menagerie was known for bestsellers such as ‘Mi-in Bread,’ ‘Pizza Baguette,’ and ‘Animal Cakes.’ In 2020, it even partnered with Shinsegae Department Store to introduce the industry’s first bakery subscription service. Although its popular products continued to draw crowds of customers lining up for bread, the brand is being discontinued as part of Shinsegae Food’s restructuring process.
With the closure of the final The Menagerie location, the ‘UNIVERSE BY JRILLA’ bakery brand, which featured a character modeled after Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin, will also disappear. The only remaining offline store for UNIVERSE BY JRILLA was operated as a shop-in-shop within The Menagerie at the Shinsegae Gangnam branch, which will also cease operations on February 27.
UNIVERSE BY JRILLA was a premium bakery brand launched by Shinsegae Food in November 2021, applying a space-themed concept alongside the worldview of the character Jrilla. While it initially attracted attention with unique designs and products like ‘Aurora Bagels’ and ‘Marble Chocolat’ that fit its cosmic theme, the buzz did not last long. Ultimately, Shinsegae Food closed its UNIVERSE BY JRILLA store in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, in December 2024, just three years after its launch.
A Shinsegae Food representative stated, “We will continue to operate our bakery business through ‘Boulangerie’ and ‘E-Bakery’ located in E-Mart139480, as well as the soon-to-launch premium bakery, BO&MIE,” adding, “The BO&MIE store is opening as part of the food section renewal at the Shinsegae Gangnam branch and is not simply replacing The Menagerie.”
Shinsegae Food has previously operated several bakery brands including The Menagerie, UNIVERSE BY JRILLA, and Dalloyau, but most have since been scaled back or discontinued. With the retirement of The Menagerie, BO&MIE will remain as the only premium brand operating within the department stores.
Shinsegae Food, which brought in former Shinsegae Property executive Kang Seung-hyup as its new CEO in October 2024, has identified the bakery sector as a key business focus for 2025. With CEO Kang—known as a financial expert within the group—at the helm, structural improvements are expected, with a primary focus on strengthening profitability through business reorganization.
Shinsegae Food has been focusing on management efficiency to recover profitability. While revenue maintained an upward trend from 1.3292 trillion KRW in 2021 to 1.4113 trillion KRW in 2022 and 1.4889 trillion KRW in 2023, operating profit fluctuated, recording 30 billion KRW, 20.6 billion KRW, and 26.4 billion KRW during the same period.
Perhaps due to these efficiency efforts, the company’s Q3 2024 revenue was 385.4 billion KRW, a 1.9% decrease from the same period the previous year (393 billion KRW), but its operating profit rose by 8.8% to 8.5 billion KRW compared to the same period last year (7.8 billion KRW). Securities firms predict that the annual operating profit for 2024 will return to the 30-billion KRW range.
The share of food services, including bakeries and corporate cafeterias, within Shinsegae Food’s total revenue is on a downward trend. The proportion of food services fell from 40.8% in 2022 to 39.8% in 2023, and further to 37.8% as of Q3 2024. Instead, the distribution service sector, which handles food supply for Shinsegae Group affiliates such as Starbucks, E-Mart, and Josun Hotel, as well as Home Meal Replacement (HMR) businesses, has grown to account for over 60% of current revenue.
Meanwhile, as Shinsegae Food has launched and withdrawn from various businesses in the past—including No Brand Pizza, Johnny Rockets, and Smoothie King (scheduled for October)—attention is also focused on the outlook for its newly expanded premium bakery brand, BO&MIE. Seo Yong-gu, a professor of business administration at Sookmyung Women’s University, observed, “There is a concept called the 'country-of-origin effect,' where a specific product or brand reflects a nation’s image. Given the recent spread of 'small luxury' culture among consumers, the French image seems likely to resonate,” adding, “If the premium strategy succeeds, it could have a positive impact on Shinsegae Food’s future bakery business.”