Convenience store 7-Eleven said on the 28th that starting on the 29th it will roll out three first-time dessert collaboration products with Lotte GRS's coffee franchise brand Angel-in-us.
The new products are three items: "coffee fresh cream choco pie," "hazelnut chewy choco ball," and "low-sugar coffee cream roll." The "coffee fresh cream choco pie" reinterprets the recently popular fresh choco pie with a coffee flavor. Soft coffee fresh cream is added inside a crisp chocolate coating to bring out a rich coffee taste. The price is 2,900 won.
The "hazelnut chewy choco ball" is a dessert using kadaif that has drawn attention on social networking services (SNS). The distinctive nutty flavor and crisp texture of kadaif are paired with a chewy chocolate marshmallow and chopped hazelnuts to enhance textural fun. The price is 3,600 won.
The "low-sugar coffee cream roll" is a mini roll cake applying the concept of "Angel-in-balance," the low-sugar brand line of Angel-in-us. By reducing sugar content, it targets health-conscious consumers who want to enjoy desserts as well as meals and drinks without burden. The price is 3,900 won.
According to 7-Eleven, dessert sales last year increased 23% from a year earlier. From Jan. 1 to May 26 this year, sales also rose 39% from the same period a year earlier. 7-Eleven plans to keep expanding collaborations with well-known brands and to quickly roll out high-buzz desserts to target dessert demand centered on Millennials and Gen Z.
Meanwhile, across the convenience store industry, desserts are emerging as a key differentiating category. CU has cultivated the dessert category as a next-generation growth engine since last year and opened "CU Seongsu Dessert Park," a dessert-specialized convenience store in Seongsu-dong. In its early days, the store recorded about twice the number of visitors compared with ordinary stores, and bread, rice cakes, and desserts accounted for 40% of total sales.
In March, GS25 unveiled the first 1,500-won uniform-price dessert series under its PB (private brand) "Hyejaroun Brand." The products, backed by reasonable pricing, surpassed 1 million cumulative units sold in about a month.
Seo Hee-joo, dessert MD at 7-Eleven, said, "Recently, convenience store desserts have evolved beyond simple snacks into a form of cultural content that expresses one's taste and sensibility," and added, "As dessert sales grow every year, proving strong demand, we will continue trendy brand collaborations to further solidify our position as a 'dessert select shop.'"