MCKINNEY, TEXAS - MAY 01: K.H. Lee of South Korea hits a tee shot on the ninth hole prior to THE CJ ... [+]
Korean food goliath CJ has begun its ten-year title sponsorship of the Byron Nelson after taking the reins from AT&T
The Seoul headquartered conglomerate, which also counts biotech, entertainment logistics and retail holdings under its umbrella, is already very familiar with golf fans. Their banner has flown behind a PGA Tour tournament since 2017, attracting attention in broadcasts through hat sponsorship deals with Sungjae Im, Si Woo Kim, K.H. Lee and Benny An, among others.
Early iterations of the tournament teed off on the serene fairways of JeJu Island’s Nine Bridges at the foot of Mount Halla. Travel concerns prompted the tournament to relocate stateside when the pandemic struck. It was played in Nevada for a couple seasons, initially at Shadow Creek and then Summit Club, before making a coastal hop to South Carolina’s Congaree Golf Club.
The company has found having an American tour stop provides a great vehicle to promote Bibigo, a brand known for dumplings, seaweed snacks, kimchi and Korean sauces including KBBQ Drizzle, a newly introduced condiment that Pak describes as “a complex sauce that has savory, smoky, sweet” notes reminiscent of Korean barbecue. Bibigo, which earlier this year underwent a major rebrand, is currently carried in over 60,000 retail locations across the U.S. including at Costco, H Mart, Kroger
Although their products are already nationally available, Minsok Pak, CEO of CJ Food, sees ample opportunity to enhance their distribution network and substantially bolster their shelf presence across the country. Additionally, Pak aims to introduce more products into restaurants through their food service partners.
“In terms of distribution, I’d love to see us in just about every grocery store in the country. This shouldn’t be a product you have to drive to an ethnic grocer to find. We want to make sure every consumer in the country can pick up their favorite Bibigo products,” he said.
MCKINNEY, TEXAS - MAY 01: Jordan Spieth signs autographs as he walks the 10th hole prior to THE CJ ... [+]
Levelling Up The CJ Cup
The CJ Cup has certainly leveled up to a bigger stage, supersizing the tournament’s reach and coverage. It has gone from a rudderless tournament that drifted around a lot to finding a long-term home at a storied tour stop that has paid homage to one of the game’s all-time greats since 1968.
“I believe it’s going to resonate, not only with our consumers and fans in the U.S. but also globally,” Pak said.
“The PGA Tour has exposure and followers around the world and given that what we are trying to push is the global expansion of our Korean food products, having the association and partnership with the Byron Nelson will give us a platform to get that global reach,” he added.
Aforementioned CJ ambassador K.H. Lee, who won the tournament back-to-back in 2021 and 2022, reflected on the significance of having one of his key corporate supporters back the event which he said inspires him with confidence.
“My main sponsor sponsors this tournament so I want to play well, I have a lot of good memories here, so it’s nice,” Lee said.
For returning tournament attendees, the turning of the sponsorship page will be most notable in the concession areas, where activations will offer opportunities to sample various Bibigo products from Korean crunchy chicken to mandu dumplings served with kimchi coleslaw.
The goal is to gain stomach share for K-food, a cultural export already enjoying a longterm bull trend as the number of Korean restaurants and Korean cuisine inspired menu items—think gochujang-glazed chicken or bulgogi fries—continues to multiply across the country. Kimchi exports hit a record high in 2023, moving 44,041 tons of the salted and fermented vegetable dish, a 7% spike from the prior year powered by steep increases in U.S. and European consumption.
America’s growing appetite for Korean food has been a tailwind for Bibigo, with Pak likening the effect to a ‘rocket ship’ as sales of the brand first introduced in 2010 have jumped 1100% in the past four years and they’ve become a major player in the Asian snacks and appetizers food category, currently commanding 25% market share.
“We are now the number one Korean food brand in the U.S., and in the Asian appetizers and snacks category we are the number one brand. I think there is this tremendous groundswell in consumer interest across all segments and all demographics that starts with a broader interest in Korean culture,” Pak said.
Last April, Netflix
“There is tremendous interest in Korean culture. Not just Korean food but Korean culture, but entertainment and movies. The global move—the K-wave—is not just recent, it’s been going on for twenty plus years and in places like the U.S. it’s just continuing to accelerate,” Pak said.
Beyond golf, CJ Foods also is the title sponsor of the O-NE Superrace Championship, the largest auto racing event in Korea, and are just over the halfway mark of a five year $100 million deal that put a Bibigo jersey patch on the chest of LeBron James and the rest the L.A. Lakers.
MCKINNEY, TEXAS - APRIL 30: Min Woo Lee of Australia reacts to a chip shot on the 18th hole prior to ... [+]
Teeing Up K-Food
For golf fans making their first foray into Korean food, Lee suggests they nibble into the cuisine via mandu and then progress to Gimbap (Korean style sushi rolls), minus the raw fish and often filled with omelet, pickled radish, spinach and julienned carrot. Among his fellow touring professionals Lee has noticed an uptick in interest in the cuisine and culture of his native land.
“Most guys, almost everybody, [now] knows Korean BBQ— the grilled meat—and sometimes they ask me ‘can we go to a Korean restaurant?’ I went one time with Maverick McNealy last year. I love to treat the guys to Korean restaurants,” he said.
Asked to put on his Nostradamus hat on and forecast the next Korean food destined to hit it big in America, he lasers in on a dessert that in his home country comes in all sorts of quirky shapes and flavors from Chal Oksusu, an ice cream novelty that looks like corn on the cob to fish and watermelon-slice-shaped cold treats.
“There is really good ice cream and frozen food in Korea. There are so many options,” Lee enthused.
If Lee ever triumphs at the Masters, one menu item destined for his Champions dinner the following year would be Tteokbokki, a spicy rice cake noodle dish, often amped up with minced meat.
