Gangnam Shake Shack leads franchise sales worldwide

Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, poses in front of the Shake Shack logo at the burger franchise’s branch in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam District, on Monday. [SPC GROUP]

Shake Shack’s first Korean branch near Gangnam Station ranked No. 1 in sales among the New-York based burger franchise’s 120 locations worldwide, according to CEO Danny Meyer of the Union Square Hospitality Group; Shake Shack’s parent company.

The second Korean store in Cheongdam-dong ranked third globally, selling an average of 2,000 to 2,500 burgers a day. The first restaurant in Gangnam sells 3,000 to 3,500 daily. The sales figures are impressive considering both branches opened less than a year ago; the first store in July and the second in December.

Meyer met with Korean reporters on Monday, inside Shake Shack’s Cheongdam restaurant in Sinsa-dong, eastern Seoul.

“Korea is a very trendy market and according to what I understood in the last few months is that Shake Shack’s corporate value of hospitality falls well in line with local consumers that value experience,” said Meyer.

On Shake Shack’s success in Korea, Meyer attributed it the Korean restaurants’ ability to exactly re-create Shake Shack’s original taste from New York—particularly regarding the buns. “Our local partner SPC Group has done a great job in reproducing Shake Shack’s taste, quality and brand,” he said.

Shake Shack’s burger buns for Korea are manufactured by food retail giant SPC Group, USHG’s contracted operator in Korea. Its subsidiary Samlip GFS currently supplies buns for its two Shake Shack’s local stores.

Among the global branches in 13 countries like the United Kingdom, Turkey and Japan, this is the only case where Shake Shack’s burger buns are not imported from a supplier in Pennsylvania, but are supplied through a local manufacturer. A source at SPC added that there’s possibility that buns made in Korea could used for other branches in other Asian countries.

An operator of the leading bakery franchise Paris Baguette and the bakery Samlip, SPC Group has the technology and know-how accumulated over the last few decades in the bakery business.

Meanwhile, SPC Group said this month that Shake Shack’s third branch will open in Doota Mall, Dongdaemun District, in April.

BY SONG KYOUNG-SON [song.kyoungson@joongang.co.kr]