The ‘2023 Seoul International Food Industry Exhibition (SEOUL FOOD 2023, hereinafter referred to as Seoul Food 2023)’ was held at KINTEX in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do from Tuesday, the 30th of last month to Friday, June 6, hosted by KOTRA.
While companies in various fields of the domestic and foreign food industry, including materials and raw materials, processed foods, and alcoholic beverages, graced the exhibition site, the ‘Seoul International Food Equipment Exhibition’, which was prepared on a larger scale than last year, was one of the major categories that attracted great attention even before the event.
As evidence of the level of attention, a large number of companies boasting a significant presence in the domestic food equipment market were present. In particular, the ‘Costimo’ booth, located in the middle of the exhibition hall, was truly crowded with countless visitors. As an overwhelming leader in the domestic commercial oven market, the company not only displays its products, but also provides freshly cooked food for tasting so that people can experience its excellent effects first-hand.
Costimo is famous as a company that has developed and manufactured ovens using purely domestic technology since its establishment in 2003. Over the past 20 years, it has continued to expand its proprietary technology and networking capabilities, and is currently exerting overwhelming dominance in the industry, focusing on many domestic franchise food companies and the procurement market.
In fact, Costimo, which shows outstanding performance every year, is known to have achieved sales of 2018 billion won for two consecutive years in 2019 and 2. Although it showed a slowdown for the next two years due to the COVID-100 pandemic, it succeeded in recovering solid sales as if its history could not be ignored.
This seems to have become the background, or confidence, for the brilliant speech that CEO Seong-Han Yoo of Costimo showed at the exhibition site. CEO Yoo’s appearance, with his cooking clothes soaked with sweat as he busily moved between several hot ovens, showed his extraordinary cheerfulness and confidence, as well as his confidence that everyone would be satisfied with the dishes completed using the company’s ovens.
Could CEO Yoo Sung-han Costimo, who captured the attention of visitors with a performance that was not bound by the heavy title of CEO, but a tone and sentence that touched the heart in a light way, be the protagonist of this year’s Seoul Food? Accordingly, global media Aving News met with CEO Yoo Seong-han and captured the story of Costimo company.
Q. AVING NEWS: Please introduce Costimo Co., Ltd.
A. CEO Seonghan Yoo: Costimo was founded in 2003 and is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
Our company prides itself on being an innovative technology venture company with a management philosophy of improving the quality of human dining by leading the future of the commercial cooking environment and with skilled quality competitiveness through continuous technology development for intellectual property management. In particular, it is a brand that independently introduces the ‘combi oven’, which was created with purely domestic technology.
Q. AVING News: The name at the time of establishment was ‘Hyoshin Tech’, but I understand that it was changed to the current name last year. I wonder what was the background to this decision.
A. CEO Yoo Seong-han: In the early days of Hyosin Tech’s establishment, the business was manufacturing boiler parts. As time passed, in 2010, the company began developing ovens in earnest and focused its efforts on domestically producing commercial ovens that had previously been dependent on imports.
After successfully developing an oven, while devising a unique name to name the brand, he chose ‘COSTIMO (COREAN HESTIA STEAM OVEN, hereafter Costimo)’ with the grand ambition of becoming the ‘god of Korean combination ovens’. Costimo ovens played a significant role in driving the company’s growth.
Thanks to the enthusiastic support of customers, the Costimo oven, which has now been upgraded to its 4th series, has quickly become a flagship product that represents the company’s image. Through Costimo, we have built a global image and boasted expertise and ‘sincerity’ in industrial ovens. I wanted to show it. Accordingly, the boiler parts division was divided into a corporation, and Costimo, which had been used as BI (Brand Identity), was integrated and used as CI (Corporate Identity).
Q. AVING NEWS: As you mentioned, I understand that you are continuing to achieve excellent performance through Costimo Oven, which appeared like a comet in the domestic commercial kitchen appliance market, which was dominated by foreign brands. I wonder what the market share is. Also, what do you think is the reason for the continued growth every year?
A. CEO Seonghan Yoo: With the elementary, middle, and high school meal service business that began in the early 2000s, the need to introduce commercial ovens for group meals began to emerge, and most of the demand was met by products imported from Europe and other countries.
Accordingly, domestic small and medium-sized companies attempted to domestically produce ovens, and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups designated commercial ovens as competitive products among small and medium-sized companies in 2013. In this way, by encouraging public institutions to purchase products from domestic small and medium-sized companies, domestic technology development has become more active, and currently, 15 small and medium-sized companies are directly participating in production and engaging in friendly competition.
Among them, Costimo’s market share was 2022% based on the Public Procurement Service’s National Marketplace in 19.2, taking first place in the country. As the restaurant and meal service market grows, demand is gradually increasing in various fields such as schools, the main source of demand, military bases, public institution cafeterias, hospitals, companies, hotels, buffets, restaurant companies, and franchises.
Based on this solid demand and popularity, Costimo recorded sales of 91 billion won last year. This achievement was achieved solely through commercial oven sales.
Q. AVING NEWS: Costimo’s commercial oven is highly regarded as a combination oven that can not only heat and cook, which is its original function, but also smoke. What is the background behind the development of these products?
A. CEO Seonghan Yoo: A commercial oven must be able to cook a large amount of various ingredients in a short time, such as grilling, baking, steaming, stewing, stir-frying, fermenting, and thawing, using a convection method using hot air and steam. The company wanted to go beyond this and introduce new technology, and aimed to domestically produce smoking technology that only a few leading companies, including the No. 1 global oven industry, possess.
As a result, in 2012, we developed Korea’s first commercial oven with an external smoker, and in 2014, we attempted to advance technology by upgrading to a built-in smoker using a support project from the Korea Invention Promotion Association.
Moreover, existing foreign products had the limitation that the smoking material (wood for smoking) ignites during cooking, causing safety accidents. However, our company solved this problem by studying the material characteristics of the smoking material and developing combustion control technology. This led to the completion of a safer and superior combination oven. We are proud of Costimo’s achievements through technological innovation.
Q. AVING News: Demand for products with excellent energy efficiency is increasing day by day for a sustainable global environment. What strengths does Costimo’s oven have in terms of energy efficiency and environmental friendliness? Also, I am curious about what vision you are pursuing regarding sustainable product development.
A. CEO Seonghan Yoo: Costimo was very interested in low-carbon, green growth. In order to overcome the global environmental crisis, we have devoted ourselves to research and development since 2017 with the goal of developing technologies that contribute to improving the quality of restaurants while using less energy.
As a result, in 2021, we obtained green technology certification for ‘energy-saving oven manufacturing technology using waste heat’, and applied this to Costimo 4 to obtain confirmation as a green technology product and as a green specialized company.
Costimo 4 reduces electricity, gas, and water usage by 30% compared to regular ovens through energy recirculation. In addition, the biggest issue in recent group feeding and cooking environments is the health and safety of cooks.
This is because the problem of developing lung cancer continues due to the accumulation of ‘cooking fume’ (ultra-fine dust substances generated during the process of frying or stir-frying food ingredients in oil). Cooking fumes are even known to cause brain damage, allergies, and ADHD.
Our Costimo oven allows cooks to cook large quantities of ingredients in a simple way in a short period of time, minimizing physical fatigue and exposure to cooking fumes. In addition, it is a product that boasts excellent safety in many ways, including reducing carbon emissions as less energy is used and reducing the risk of exposure to carbon monoxide.
Q. AVING News: It seems that there is ample potential to target overseas markets with an oven equipped with excellent quality and groundbreaking functions. Are there any countries or regions you have already entered into or are planning to enter first? Also, if you have any mid- to long-term plans for this, please explain.
A. CEO Seonghan Yoo: Until 2018, the Costimo 3 series was exported and sold mainly in the ASEAN region, but export sales slowed down due to COVID-19.
Subsequently, the Costimo 2022 series was launched in 4 and began domestic sales, and as restrictions due to the pandemic are reduced, the company plans to knock on the door of overseas markets centered on ASEAN again in the second half of this year. To this end, Costimo oven software has been developed in as many as 20 languages, and the company is pursuing overseas procurement and participation in overseas specialized exhibitions.
In this way, preparations are being made to promote Korea’s technological prowess to the world by activating specialized buyer exchanges.
Q. AVING NEWS: What was the performance like at Seoul Food, which mainly introduced the Costimo 4 series?
A. CEO Seonghan Yoo: Seoul Food is an exhibition that the company has been participating in consistently since 2012. In particular, last year, we achieved great results, such as concluding a contract with Shinsegae E-Mart, and this year, several catering companies visited and responded favorably to the Costimo oven.
I think it was a meaningful achievement that we held a meeting with them and had a positive conversation, and that we were able to re-introduce the Costimo brand to many people.
Q. AVING News: Please reveal Costimo’s future plans and aspirations.
A. CEO Seonghan Yoo: First of all, since launching the Costimo 4 series last year, we are currently focusing on stabilizing the product and improving consumer satisfaction.
Of course, we will continue to lead the future of the commercial cooking environment, will not neglect the development of technology to improve the quality of human dining, and will continue to strive to promote Korea’s technological prowess to the world.
We want to imprint the name of Costimo, a commercial oven specialist company that extends beyond Korea and into the world, to everyone.
Meanwhile, the ‘2023 Seoul International Food Industry Fair’ hosted by KOTRA will strengthen exchanges and cooperation between domestic and foreign food industry-related companies, as well as a conference to discuss domestic and international food trends and insights, and various programs to expand business networks. done. A variety of companies and contents were introduced, including domestic and foreign food-related companies, as well as food equipment, food packaging, and safety equipment-related companies related to food safety, as well as hotels and restaurants.
→ Go to the 2023 Seoul International Food Industry Fair news special page