Jeju Samdasoo's mineral water set for first price increase in five years

Industry

Published: 25 Jan. 2023, 17:11

Jeju Samdasoo's mineral water set for first price increase in five years

Bottles of Jeju Samdasoo mineral water are on display at a supermarket in Seoul. Jeju Samdasoo will increase the price of its water from Feb. 1. [YONHAP]

Jeju Samdasoo, a mineral water brand that accounts for 42.8 percent of the market share in Korea's mineral water market, will increase its prices from next month.

The factory price for Jeju Samdasoo water will increase by 9.8 percent on average starting Feb. 1, according a spokesperson for Jeju Province Development Corporation (JPDC), which produces and sells the mineral water, on Wednesday.

This price increase, which is due to increases in labor costs, raw material costs and logistics costs according to JPDC, is the first of its kind in five years since the factory price rose by as much as 10 percent.

Jeju Samdasoo's 500 milliliter bottles will be sold for 480 won (38 cents) and 2 liter bottles for 1,080 won in supermarkets from February.

However, prices may differ depending on where the water is sold, because mineral water is an open price item, which has no preset price, allowing the final vendor to decide how much to sell it for.

Jeju Samdasoo's sales reached 335 billion won ($271 million) last year, an increase of 9.8 percent on year and the highest ever since its launch in 1998.

BY JEONG HYE-JEONG, YOO JI-YOEN [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]