GS25 and CU sell 500 million cups of coffee annually... Price competitiveness surges ↑

The way convenience stores sell beverages is changing. Following their entry into the café market with low-priced filter coffee, convenience stores are now freshly preparing and introducing fruit smoothies, matcha, and health drinks directly in-store. With taste and the experience of freshly made drinks added to price competitiveness, convenience stores are gradually expanding into areas that overlap with traditional café menus.

According to the distribution industry on the 28th, the convenience store fresh coffee market officially took off in 20th century—correction—in 2015 when Seven-Eleven introduced "Seven Café." In the same year, GS25 and CU also entered the competition by launching "Cafe25" and "Cafe Get" (currently Get Coffee), respectively.

Since then, freshly brewed coffee has become an indispensable product at major convenience stores. Annual sales of fresh drip and espresso coffee at GS25 and CU have surpassed 500 million cups, and the proportion of stores selling these coffees exceeds 90% for both GS25 and CU.

Investments to enhance coffee quality have also continued. While introducing European-made coffee machines costing over 10 million won each—such as La Cimbali for CU and Franke for GS25—they maintain selling prices at the 1,000 to 1,500 won range.

CU's "Get Coffee" sells in such high volumes that it ranks third in sales among all products. Its sales growth rate has also posted double digits every year, recording 24.8% in 2022, 23.2% in 2023, and 21.7% in 2024. During the development process, roasting champions and others conducted hundreds of tests and blind tests, and in April of last year, the coffee bean blend was changed to 40% Brazil, 40% Guatemala, and 20% Colombia. It has been designed for use not only in Americanos but also in Café Lattes, Vanilla Lattes, and other beverages.

GS25 also co-developed exclusive coffee beans with Dongsuh Foods from the launch of Cafe25 in 2015. In September of last year, the blend was changed to 35% Brazil, 30% Guatemala, 25% Colombia, 5% Ethiopia, and 5% Papua New Guinea. This method involves roasting beans separately by origin and then blending them. In March of last year, the price of a Cafe25 hot Americano was lowered from 1,300 won to 1,000 won. This was the result of lowering purchase unit costs by negotiating with roasters based on long-term, bulk supply agreements.

Seven-Eleven receives coffee bean supplies from Lotte Wellfood. It formed a "Team MD" with the Lotte Central Research Institute and Lotte Wellfood, reorganizing its composition with beans from six countries: 40% Brazil, 25% Colombia, 15% Honduras, 10% Ethiopia, 5% Guatemala, and 5% Costa Rica. It applied the strongest dark (French) roasting among the top three convenience stores, and implemented a clean taste by filtering out oils and fine powder using paper filters.

Having secured competitiveness in the fresh coffee market, the convenience store industry chose smoothies as its next battleground. All four major convenience stores now handle smoothies or are expanding their sales networks, leading to a fierce competition to install dedicated manufacturing equipment. When a dedicated cup containing frozen fruit is placed into the machine, a beverage is completed in about a minute, and the price is 3,000 to 3,500 won—cheaper than café fruit beverages.

Sales performances are also growing rapidly. Seven-Eleven's fresh smoothies, launched in March, recorded a cumulative 1 million cups in 6 months. Sales stores number around 300, averaging 550 sales per store monthly and generating about 1.6 million won in additional monthly revenue.

GS25 announced that its smoothie sales from January to June this year surged by 290.3% compared to the same period last year. At a university-area branch, more than 3,000 cups were sold during the single month of June, ranking first in general product sales. CU's "Real Smoothie" also saw sales jump by 110.8% in June and July of this year compared to the same period last year. Emart24 sells smoothies at about 200 stores, with first-half sales growing 61% on a monthly average.

As sales increase, the convenience store industry views smoothies as a new store competitive edge, simultaneously expanding sales outlets and menus. Following its matcha smoothie made with domestic matcha and milk, Seven-Eleven is preparing to launch an ABC smoothie containing apples, beets, and carrots. CU has added ABC smoothie and acai berry products, while GS25 has introduced menu items utilizing café lattes following its watermelon smoothie.

The reason convenience stores are investing in low-priced café businesses is that, beyond the sales of the beverages themselves, they induce additional purchases of other items. In GS25's internal survey, about 81% of coffee purchasing customers bought other products together. For smoothies as well, 40% of buyers were found to have purchased items like chicken, Americanos, or eggs together. In essence, beverages play a role in attracting customers to stores and raising overall store sales.

A notable change in this trend highlighted by the industry is that menus prepared and completed directly in-store—rather than just selling finished products—are increasing. By expanding product lines into coffee, smoothies, and dessert-style drinks, competition is expanding in a direction that increases the purpose of visiting convenience stores and extends customer stay times.

Currently, GS25, CU, and Seven-Eleven are installing coffee machines and smoothie manufacturing equipment at franchise stores at headquarters expense.

An official from the convenience store industry stated, "While related fixtures are being installed with headquarters support, it requires securing separate space inside stores, and especially for smoothies, the key question is whether demand will continue through the winter season. While coffee is already sold in most domestic stores, smoothies are handled in only a few hundred locations, making it an important task whether current levels of sales efficiency can be maintained when stores are expanded."