Samsung Wellstory completes construction of central kitchen, expands school lunch business (South Korea)

Samsung Wellstory, a major food service company, has opened a Central Kitchen (CK) in Asan, Chungcheongnam-do, which has an automated production line for all food production processes.
The company announced that it will complete construction of a new facility and strengthen its school lunch business. The total floor area of the new facility will be 20,354 square meters. Demand for prepared food at the company's on-premise cafeterias nationwide is expected to increase by 20% year-on-year.
The number of customers who buy food from CK is increasing, and customer preferences are shifting to pre-cooked foods. In response to these changes in consumers, the company plans to develop high-quality pre-cooked foods at CK.
In 2018, the company expanded production of new products that reflect consumer trends. In addition to cooking ingredients used in food manufacturing such as CK salads and norimaki, the company also handles the entire process from rice cooking, which is a key step in the manufacture of norimaki, to wrapping.
All production processes, from preparation to quality inspection, will be automated. This will prevent food contamination that would occur if humans were to intervene in the process, while also enabling production in a short time and maintaining the freshness of the product.
In particular, it is the first food manufacturer for on-site cafeterias to apply the latest automatic sorting and loading system, enabling rapid food delivery.
Through CK, the company started out by producing prepared foods exclusively for the on-site cafeteria, and then expanded into the food distribution business.
They also plan to expand.