Pulmuone sells $30m of fresh noodles in US in 2019

Pulmuone said Tuesday that its annual sales of Asian noodles in the US reached $30 million in 2019, a sixfold increase in the last four years.

The Korean fresh food company, which leads the US tofu market, entered the Asian noodle market in the US in 2015 with premium fresh noodle products, posting annual sales of $5 million in the first year.

Led by the solid performance of Black Bean Sauce Noodles and Teriyaki Stir-fry Udon distributed in Costco stores, sales continued to rise, and in 2019, the annual figure stood at $30 million, up 85 percent from a year earlier, the company said. 

Pulmuone said it will continue to expand its US portfolio and strengthen the Asian noodle business, along with its tofu and kimchi products, to attract customers beyond the 2.5 million Korean population and other Asian ethnicities there.

“As the US Asian noodle market was focused on items of low-priced instant noodles, we chose to approach the market with premium fresh noodles to meet consumer needs for quality Asian foods,” said Park Su-jie, product manager of Asian category marketing at Pulmuone USA Foods.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)