Emart’s Peacock brand takes wing in market

Emart’s Peacock prepared meals is no longer a strictly in-house brand. They can now be bought in AK Plaza department stores.

The first branch to offer Peacock products was the Bundang branch in Gyeonggi, which started Peacock sales this month. Around 130 products are arranged in a corner of the department store’s basement groceries section.

This is the first case of an in-house brand being picked up by a rival retailer. Peacock products have been sold by Shinsegae Group’s Emarts, Shinsegae Department Stores and With Me convenience stores.

Emart’s move signals the group’s intention to push Peacock beyond in-house brand to a proper food brand.

“It’s a starting point for us to grow Peacock into an individual food brand,” said Kim Il-whan, a manager for the Peacock team at Emart.

Emart’s started online sales of Peacock products last March through a partnership with e-commerce company Coupang. Since then, they have been offered on other e-commerce sites like Gmarket and 11st, mobile stores Syrup and Kakao and even on home shopping channels including NS and Lotte.

Last year, Emart established an individual B2B sales team and signed contracts with eight companies to place Peacock products in their brick-and-mortar stores.

The reason why Emart’s competitors are embracing Peacock is that the brand has been rapidly expanding presence in the so-called home meal replacement market.

Peacock sales reached 190 billion won ($166 million) last year, a fivefold increase over 34 billion won in 2013, when the brand was launched. During that same period, the number of products in the Peacock line grew from 200 to 1,000. Its products include soups, rice dishes, kimchi and desserts, including a Tiramisu Cake that was Peacock’s No.1 best seller last year.

Home meal replacements continue to grow, fueled by the growth of single households.

Emart has set a goal to expand its line of products to 1,500 this year.

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