As CJ Olive Young expands its business scope from a beauty-centered channel to wellness (well-being + fitness) overall, it is accelerating the development of its own brands (PB). It is strengthening its PB strategy through snack and health food categories such as toast chips, shakes, and jelly (gummies).
According to the industry on the 9th, Olive Young recently unveiled its wellness-dedicated platform Olive Better and launched a new PB brand, All the Better. It expanded the product lineup beyond the existing healthy snack PB, Delight Project, broadening the range to snacks and health functional foods overall.
In particular, products that reinterpret snacks and health foods gaining attention overseas to suit domestic consumer tastes stand out. Toast chips and gummies are representative. By collaborating with established mid-sized and small domestic food companies, it raised quality while securing price competitiveness compared with imported products.
Toast chips are based on whole wheat, applying a recipe that reduces sugar for a crisp texture. By increasing protein and dietary fiber content to strengthen nutritional balance compared with regular snacks, they target demand from consumers seeking snacks that can serve as a light bite, a meal substitute, or something to eat before and after workouts.
The same goes for gummy products. In Europe and the United States, "gummy-type supplements" that take vitamins, minerals, collagen, melatonin, and more in jelly form are already mainstream. By chewing them like snacks instead of pills, they improved convenience and accessibility and drew in consumers of various ages, including adults.
Also released as PB products are protein shakes, energy booster shots in various flavors, olive oil, and sweet potato and fruit chips. Products in pouch or stick form rather than bottles can also be purchased individually, not only as sets.
Olive Young's expansion of PB snacks and health foods is seen as part of its platform growth strategy. As it widens its business scope from a beauty focus to wellness overall, it plans to enhance channel competitiveness through PB, which allows direct control over product planning, pricing, and distribution.
In particular, expanding PB is considered advantageous for profitability management. By shortening distribution stages, it secures price competitiveness while protecting margins. There is also the advantage of making it easier to turn products over or carry out renewals depending on market response after launch.
Over the past 10 years, Olive Young's wellness sales increased 864%, and the number of buyers rose 507%, according to tallies. Olive Better is a channel that introduces health-related products such as food and sleep, but it is especially focused on proposing a wellness lifestyle centered on healthy "eating."
In the first half of this year, Olive Young plans to open the second Olive Better store near Gangnam Station following Gwanghwamun in Seoul, and expand stores across Seoul and the greater metropolitan area. It plans to build a wellness hub based on downtown commercial districts where people can naturally stop by along commuting and daily routes.