Company finds secret to success is explosive

Poongnyun pressure cooker

PN Poongnyun was a regular pots and pans production company that hit on an explosive secret to success - the pressure rice cooker.

It all began in 1960 when founder Yoo Byeong-hun received a pressure cooker as a gift from a friend living in Europe. He thought it was a valuable product but didn’t think Korea had the technology to make something similar at the time, so he boxed it back up and put it in the storage room.

The next time he saw a pressure cooker, during a business trip in Europe in the early 1970s, Yoo jumped on the chance to develop it. He had realized its potential value to the Korean market and wasted no time getting to work.

However, while the foreign pressure cooker was good with meat and vegetables, Yoo found that it didn’t work well for rice. But he was determined to find a way. After a long, and at times dangerous, period of research, his employees finally hit on the right formula. To cook meat and veggies, a steady amount of pressure is needed over an extended period of time, but to cook rice, a high amount of pressure is needed for a short period of time.

“In the beginning the pressure cooker would explode and many people got injured,” recalled Park Hong-koo, 73, who participated in the product’s early development and production. “Employees were reluctant to work on the development team,” he added. After three years of research, the first PN Poongnyun pressure cooker was ready. It was introduced in 1973. Since then, the company has continued to develop the product through the use of different materials, going from aluminum to stainless steel and a mixture of both.

PN Poongnyun currently has the largest market share for pressure cookers here, with 70 percent. Last year, its revenue was 32 billion won ($26.87 million).

By Choi Ji-young [ojlee82@joongang.co.kr]