GEN Restaurant Group is turning up the heat on its retail line of Korean foods, having expanded from 31 to 800 grocery stores since September—growth fueled by the rising interest in Korean culture and food.
“Everybody knows our brand. That’s what separates us,” Chairman and Chief Executive David Kim told the Business Journal. “There are other competitive brands out there, but no one comes close to our brand recognition.”
After launching four ready-to-cook Korean meats at Pavilions last fall, Kim announced in March that several of GEN’s Korean side dishes, sauces and drinks, which are already served in all-you-can-eat fashion inside its restaurants, will also enter grocery stores starting in May.
As it pushes into consumer-packaged goods (CPG), the Cerritos-based operator and parent company of the GEN Korean BBQ chain is pausing restaurant expansion.
“We came up with this idea because, as we are growing our brand throughout the country, I got frustrated that I wasn’t able to showcase our products fast enough to America because we can only showcase it through the channels of our own restaurants,” Kim said.
“And building restaurants takes a lot of time and a lot of risk.”
With its sights set on its CPG business reaching $20 million in sales in 2026—and possibly $100 million over the next three years—GEN aims to prove its value on Wall Street as well through this retail strategy.
“This rapid expansion highlights the incredible consumer demand of the GEN brands and emphasizes the effectiveness of our brand recognition and growth strategy for scaling new products quickly and efficiently,” Kim said in a statement.
Shares jumped as high as 20% to $2.09 apiece from Kim’s initial announcement on March 20.
However, investors were skeptical after GEN reported on March 31 that fourth-quarter revenue fell 9% to $50 million and same-store sales decreased 11.6%.
Kim blamed the drop in foot traffic on rising fuel costs and reduced visits from its core Hispanic customer, saying “they have been put under extreme pressure through the immigration enforcement.”
The stock dropped 13% to $1.68 per share, with a market cap of $56 million, the day after the fourth-quarter report (Nasdaq: GENK).
“The price drop right now is, in my opinion, not a reflection of what the company’s value is when insiders own so much,” Kim said. “The vested interest is so high because we’re all owners here.”
The restaurant company went public in June 2023 at $12 per share, with Kim sharing the top role with co-founder Jae Chang at the time. Since then, the stock has fallen 86%.
“To see that growth now is accelerating through this channel of CPG, maybe there will be interest in the stock and in the company’s valuation, with the cash flow,” Kim said.
To help ease concerns, Kim said that GEN will be in talks with investment bankers to see if the company needs to bring in a partner that can help grow the CPG business, through either a merger or partnership structure, “so that the value creation could be different, because we have a creation of demand for our products right now.”
At press time, shares were trading around $1.56 apiece with a market cap of $52 million.
Slowing Down Restaurant Development
Chang and Kim opened the first GEN Korean BBQ in Tustin in 2011, which they said was the first time the traditional cook-it-yourself, all-you-can-eat dining experience had been combined with a full-service setting.
Kim told the Business Journal two years ago that the goal was to reach 250 locations in the U.S. He later became the sole CEO at the start of 2025.
Last year, the company opened 15 new locations, including six in South Korea, bringing the total to 57 restaurants. GEN also reported that the average unit volume is over $5 million per restaurant.
Despite surpassing its target of 12 to 13 new stores by the end of 2025, GEN now plans to slow restaurant development to focus on building out the CPG division. Kim told analysts that only two to five locations were currently under construction.
“How am I going to cover 40 states, opening one store at a time?” Kim noted.
Betting on Ready to Serve
The wholesale idea was proven during the 2020 pandemic, when GEN introduced temporary bulk-purchase options for its ready-to-serve Korean meat at 21 restaurants, which the CEO said received a positive response.
At the same time, Kim didn’t want the food products to lose their restaurant-level quality, so he made sure that the same meat served in the restaurants was also delivered to the supermarkets. He said GEN is targeting supermarkets far enough from restaurants to avoid interfering with existing foot traffic.
Soon after the ready-to-cook meat options debuted in 31 Southern California Pavilions in September, the products entered 600 Albertsons, Vons and Safeway stores by the end of October. As of March, GEN has reached over 800 retail locations.
“The customer response was incredible and the business blew up,” Kim told analysts on a March 31 earnings call.
On May 28, several more dishes from GEN will go live in at least 200 stores in California, according to Kim.
In the works, there are one to two more meat products, spicy rice cakes, gyoza, kimchi fried rice, kimbap, glass noodles, GEN’s brisket sauce, salts and more. A GEN-branded soju, a distilled Korean liquor, will soon enter stores nationwide.
While the meats are made in the U.S., Kim said all the other products are made in Korea and imported. GEN will also debut new snacks such as bulgogi, and shrimp-flavored chips.
“Due to the exceptional early reception from both retail buyers and consumers, we are accelerating our trajectory for expansion,” Kim said in a statement.
The company aims to have its consumer products in 1,500 to 2,000 U.S. locations by the end of 2026, with a revenue run rate “in excess” of $20 million, leading GEN to forecast an annual run rate approaching $250 million in companywide revenue this year.
“The faster we can get retailers to accept this, the faster we can put our products in,” Kim said. “It’s just been a progression, because right now, everybody is looking for the next hot thing.”
By the end of 2027, GEN estimates it could reach between 7,000 and 8,000 stores, with the goal of generating $100 million in CPG revenue over the next three years, rather than five as originally projected.
Kim also credits the consumer demand for GEN’s CPG products to brand recognition.
“Our internal studies show that more than 50% of consumers who purchased our ready-to-cook meats were already familiar with the GEN brand and have eaten at our restaurants,” he said in a statement.
Kim added that GEN is seeing tailwinds from the growing interest in Korean culture and food fueled by the rise of K-Pop bands like BTS or K-Drama TV shows on Netflix.
GEN restaurant workers have also been doing product demonstrations at stores to showcase the food and test reception. Kim also pointed to high gift card sales at Costco; GEN sold approximately $29 million in gift cards to Costco in 2025, a 150% increase from 2024.
