Only fried chicken restaurants saw sales increases last year

Amid the spread of the coronavirus, chicken meat consumption is reported to have increased, while Korean food restaurants and café saw decline in sales by more than 15 percent.

According to the Fair Trade Commission’s report on the franchise industry in 2021 on Tuesday, the number of franchise businesses registered as of the end of 2021 was 7,342, the number of franchise brands 11,218, and the number of franchise stores 270,485. The number of franchise headquarters increased by 31.1% year-on-year, and the number of franchise brands was up by 58.1% compared to the previous year. The rapid growth in the number of brands is attributable to the inclusion of small-sized franchise headquarters in the official count, upon the amendment of the Fair Transactions in Franchise Business Act which took effect in May 2021, that mandated small-sized franchise businesses to provide an information disclosure document.

The average sales revenue raised by the franchise industry was 310 million won, down by 5.5 percent compared to the previous year. The average sales of the food business was 280 million won, down by 9 percent. Yet the sales figure of chicken franchises rose by 8.4 percent. An official at the FTC analyzed that the increase in sales of chicken franchises is attributable to the fact that people consume chicken meat mostly by delivery.

On the contrary, the sales figures of Korean food restaurants and café decreased by 18.1 percent and 15.1 percent, respectively. An increase in the number of café franchise stores, which recorded 10.3 percent compared to the previous year, turned out to be higher compared to other industries, possibly due to fierce competition that drove down the sales.

The turnover of the service industry was 128 million won, down by 2.3 percent year-on-year. Beauty and hair salon industry saw the biggest decline, 16.5 percent. Large and small retail industry recorded the sales figures of 530 million won, down by 4.1 percent. Cosmetics industry saw a significant decline by 41 percent due to consumers’ preference toward online purchases.


kalssam35@donga.com