Digimon bread hits the shelves following Pokemon's success

Industry

Published: 24 Aug. 2022, 16:02 Updated: 24 Aug. 2022, 19:22

Digimon bread hits the shelves following Pokemon's success

Digimon bread [LOTTE CONFECTIONERY]

Korean food companies are introducing more character-themed breads following the success of Pokemon-sticker breads earlier this year.

Lotte Confectionery introduced Digimon bread on Wednesday. Four Digimon breads — honey cream, peanut cream, pineapple and marron — are available, and each contains one of 182 Digimon character stickers.

Digimon, short for Digital Monsters, is the name of a Japanese cartoon franchise that was popular in the 2000s among kindergartners and elementary school students and rivaled the Pokemon series in its popularity. Similar to the Pokemon series, Digimon also spun off numerous merchandise items and games that were popular with young fans.

Digimon bread had been released twice by SPC Samlip, in 2001 and 2009. This is the first time that Lotte Confectionery has introduced the product.

“As the Pokemon bread gained huge popularity, some Digimon maniacs asked companies to release Digimon bread,” said a spokesperson for Lotte Confectionery.

A customer purchases Pokemon bread at a discount mart in Seoul on April 25. [NEWS1]

SPC Samlip reintroduced Pokemon bread on February 24 after consumers asked for it to be released again.

The bread gained huge popularity when it was first released in 1998, starting a collecting frenzy of the stickers that came with the product.

The company’s revenue increased by 14 percent to 814.9 billion won ($607 million) in the second quarter on year, hitting the 800 billion won ($595 million) level for the first time. Net profit also rose 57.5 percent to 15.98 billion won.

Other character breads are also becoming popular in Korea. CU introduced a Cookie Run-sticker bread in October last year. Cookie Run is a popular mobile game in Korea. Since its introduction, around 12 million bags have been sold.

Among the consumers of the Cookie Run bread, 35.6 percent were in their 20s, 25.4 percent in their 30s and 18.8 percent in their 40s.

GS25 introduced a MapleStory-sticker bread with Nexon in June. Around 3 million of them have been sold so far, and 68 percent of the consumers were in their 20s.

“The success of these character breads is a result of the strong fan base and the trend of collecting,” said an insider of a retail chain. “Products that collaborate with popular content will keep on hitting the market."

BY BAEK IL-HYUN [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]