Convenience store 7-Eleven said on the 28th that starting on the 29th it will roll out three first-ever dessert collaboration products with Lotte GRS's coffee franchise brand Angel-in-us.
The new items are three varieties: "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. It features smooth coffee fresh cream inside a crispy chocolate coating to accentuate the rich coffee taste. The price is 2,900 won.
The "hazelnut chewy choco ball" is a dessert that uses kadayif, which drew attention on social networking services (SNS). It enhances textural fun by adding chewy chocolate marshmallow and crushed hazelnuts to kadayif's signature nutty taste and crispy texture. The price is 3,600 won.
The "low-sugar coffee cream roll" is a mini roll cake that applies the concept of Angel-in-us's low-sugar brand line "Angel-in Balance." By lowering sugar content, it targets health-conscious consumers who want to enjoy desserts as well as meals or drinks without burden. The price is 3,900 won.
According to 7-Eleven, dessert sales last year rose 23% from a year earlier. From Jan. 1 to May 26 this year, sales also increased 39% from the same period a year earlier. 7-Eleven plans to continue expanding collaborations with well-known brands and to quickly introduce buzzworthy desserts to tap dessert demand centered on Millennials and Gen Z.
Meanwhile, across the convenience store industry, desserts are emerging as a key differentiating category. CU has nurtured the dessert category as a next-generation growth engine since last year and opened the dessert-specialized convenience store "CU Seongsu Dessert Park" 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 introduced a 1,500-won flat-price dessert series for the first time under its PB (private brand) "Hyejaroun Brand." With a focus on reasonable pricing, the products surpassed a cumulative 1 million units sold in about a month.
Seo Hee-ju, 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 and demonstrate strong demand, we will continue trendy brand collaborations to further solidify our position as a 'dessert select shop.'"