A fire broke out on the 3rd at the Shihwa plant in Jeongwang-dong, Siheung, Gyeonggi Province, the largest production base of SPC Samlip, halting operations across the entire plant. The Shihwa plant is SPC Samlip's key production base, producing 70% of mass-produced bread in Korea. The plant had its production suspended for more than a month after a fatal accident in May last year. There are concerns that if operations are not resumed quickly, disruptions across Korea's bread supply chain will be unavoidable.
According to related industry sources on the 4th, at about 2:59 p.m. the previous day, a fire started on the third floor of Building R (production building), a four-story structure at SPC Samlip's Shihwa plant in Jeongwang-dong, Siheung, Gyeonggi Province, on a loaf bread production line. Twelve people were working on the third floor. Ten evacuated on their own, and two evacuated to the fourth floor and the roof, respectively, before being rescued by firefighters. In the process, three people—a woman in her 40s, a man in his 20s, and a man in his 50s—suffered minor injuries from smoke inhalation. The fire was extinguished at about 10:49 p.m., roughly eight hours after it was reported.
The Shihwa plant is a mass producer not only of mass-produced bread but also of ready-to-eat meals and B2B (business-to-business) burger buns supplied to major franchise chains. The plant immediately halted production. There is concern that the impact could spread to bread buyers such as convenience stores, big-box retailers, and restaurant franchises.
The Shihwa plant was the site of a fatal entrapment accident on a cream bread production line on May 19 last year. Police and the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) are currently investigating under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act and on charges including occupational negligence resulting in death. President Lee Jae-myung also visited the plant in July last year and rebuked management over safety issues. After the accident, the Shihwa plant fully suspended operations and resumed on June 24 last year, 36 days after the shutdown.
During the shutdown at the Shihwa plant, burger franchises such as Lotteria and No Brand Burger experienced disruptions in bun supplies. As burger bun deliveries became irregular, some stores temporarily halted operations. Family restaurant Outback, which serves bread before meals, suspended bread service for five weeks. Convenience stores and retailers also temporarily stopped selling major SPC Samlip mass-produced bread items such as "Pokemon Bread" and "Full Moon."
An official at a burger company said, "It's not to the point of immediate disruption, but we are concerned if it takes time to normalize the plant," adding, "However, when operations were halted due to the fatal accident last year, the burger industry moved to diversify suppliers and other measures, so we should be able to respond quickly to this situation." Lotte GRS, which operates Lotteria, is known to source burger buns from SPC Samlip, Lotte Wellfood, and multiple small and midsize companies.
The convenience store industry has halted sales of some bread items. CU, run by BGF Retail, has suspended sales at all stores of 20 types of bread and three types of refrigerated noodles produced at the Shihwa plant, and halted deliveries of 10 types of hamburgers and four types of sandwiches from all centers except Naju, Daegu, Gyeongsan, Jinju, Gimhae, and Yangsan.
GS25, run by GS Retail, suspended sales of 22 types of bread and six types of refrigerated foods among all items ordered from the Shihwa plant. At 7-Eleven, about 10 products including sandwiches and burgers supplied to parts of the Seoul metropolitan area such as Opo, Yangju, Metropolitan Refrigerated, Gimje, Incheon, Haean Giheung, Ilsan, Suwon, Wonju, Sejong, and Anseong are out of stock. E-MART24 temporarily suspended sales of three types of sandwiches, four types of hamburgers, and 19 types of shelf-stable bread.
A convenience store industry official said, "Some bread items will be taken off the shelves. We expect the plant to normalize quickly," adding, "We offer a wide variety of bread, so stores are guiding customers by recommending substitute products."
The industry is closely watching the possibility of a prolonged shutdown. A restaurant industry official said, "When operations were halted due to the fatal accident last year, bread supply was disrupted and we used substitute bread," adding, "If the shutdown is prolonged this year as well, we will likely need to prepare measures."
Police and fire authorities began an on-site examination at 10 a.m. that day to determine the cause of the fire. About 20 people, including the police forensics unit and fire investigators, participated. An SPC Samlip official, regarding potential bread supply disruptions and the timeline for resuming operations, said, "A joint forensics examination is underway and results are not yet out, so it is difficult to offer an official position," adding, "We will need to assess the scale of the damage to determine whether to resume operations." The official also said, "We are operating an alternative production system to minimize product supply disruptions."
Meanwhile, SPC Group, after a boycott spread following the 2022 accident at the SPL plant in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, held a press conference and said it would invest 100 billion won in safety management, including replacing aging machinery. After another fatal accident occurred at the Shihwa plant in May last year, the company said it would inject an additional 62.4 billion won by 2027.
According to the "SPC Safety Management Innovation Plan report to the National Assembly" submitted by SPC Group to the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee in May last year, the company invested a total of 96.9 billion won in expanding safety facilities and automating high-risk tasks by the end of May that year. Despite this spending, accidents continued at the same plant.