DOUGHNUT DYNASTY

In less than a decade, Lee Jun-beom has built from a single burger joint into a titan of South Korean F&B, with 42 outlets across 11 different restaurant chains. Now, armed with a major cash injection, he’s got his sights set on the rest of the world

- Richard Lord

Lee Jun-beom has accidentally birthed an F&B empire. After an abortive career in fashion, the South Korean entrepreneur has gone from setting up and cooking in his own restaurant in 2014 to owning and running 42 of them less than a decade later. They fall under the umbrella of his food and lifestyle brand GFFG, which stands for Good Food For Good—“for good” in the sense of “permanently”: quite the corporate statement of intent.

GFFG has become known for a wide range of mostly American-style F&B concepts, combining stylish surroundings, approachable prices and a range of extremely Insta-friendly menu items—first and foremost, bakery chain Cafe Knotted’s range of visually sumptuous doughnuts, served in brightly coloured cups emblazoned with a lip-licking smiley, that it’s more or less impossible not to be cheered by.

Those 42 outlets are spread across 11 brands: Downtowner (burgers), Littleneck (steaks), Cafe Knotted (a bakery café), Woktionary (American-style Chinese food), Any Occasion (brunch), KYMA (sushi), Openend (a whisky bar), Minute Papillon (churros), Bakery Blair (er, bakery again), Hojokban (Korean fusion) and Clap Pizza (Korean fusion pizza—yes, it’s a thing). The company, which employs about 800 people, generated revenue of US$72 million in 2022, up from US$57 million in 2021—itself a 133 per cent rise on the previous year. It also ended 2022 with its first ever institutional funding round, worth about US$23 million, which it intends to use to turbo charge its expansion, including quite possibly a high street or entertainment district near you.