When the door to the underground manufacturing facility opened, a toasty aroma wrapped around the tip of the nose. The scent of roasted nuts seeped in through the mask worn for hygiene. The smell of freshly roasted almonds and cashews mingled, as if standing in the middle of a coffee roastery. Amid the whirring of machines, the faint sound of countless nuts finding their way could be heard. When all the processes are finished, they settle into small packets.
The Cheaum in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, visited on the 6th, is a company that processes and sells nuts. Its flagship product is a portioned pack set to the proper daily intake, with 25 grams in a single bag. Inside the small bag, almonds, cashews and pecans are mixed in fixed ratios.
Roasting nuts like coffee is no longer unfamiliar, but in the past the common method was to fry almonds in oil and cover them with salt. Kwon Young-gi, head of The Cheaum, who worked at a nut company in 1984, said the question arose, "Why fry good nuts in oil and cover them with salt?"
Kwon said, "I thought that if you deep-fry nuts, which are composed of 45% to 99% fat, it brings no benefit to the body," and "I thought it would be good to change the manufacturing process, so I started studying."
Kwon visited food expos in France and Japan. When the foreign exchange crisis made it impossible to stay with the company, he started his own business in 1998. He focused on low-temperature roasting (dry roasting) as a new method to replace conventional frying. After hundreds of experiments, he concluded that low-temperature roasting at below 150 degrees for 90 to 100 minutes brings out sweetness the more you chew, and he patented the process. The Cheaum holds five related patents.
Kwon said, "When we manufactured nuts by roasting and tried 25-gram small packs, there was strong opposition from employees and family."
He added, "I saw in a paper that about 22 to 30 grams is an appropriate intake and applied that, but back then people bought and sold by the kilogram, so they asked who would eat 25 grams," and "when I took it to home shopping, they turned it away asking 'how are we supposed to sell this,' so I set up an online mall and started selling."
Contrary to concerns, the market responded well. The key was that it could be carried and eaten conveniently. As latecomers rolled out similar concepts one after another, the phrase "a handful a day" took hold as an industry category. At first, employees measured the nuts and packed them into bags by hand, but now automated equipment packs them in 25-gram portions.
Kwon said, "We introduced a full-process automatic temperature and humidity control system to automatically regulate the factory's temperature and humidity and to maintain quality without rancid odors," adding, "We are also putting effort into raw material management."
With about 30 employees and an automated plant, The Cheaum is competing in a 1.5 trillion won nut market. It produces 1 million packets a month. Including its distribution subsidiary, it posted 12 billion won in sales last year. It also works on an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) basis to produce products under client brands for companies such as Coupang, CU and Costco.
Kwon noted, "Coupang and Costco each said they would supply products to Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries, so we are working on that." He added, "Next year, excluding distribution, I want to post 15 billion won in processing sales alone. That's achievable within the factory's production capacity," and "instead of greatly expanding the product lineup, we will grow as a company focused on nuts."