Seoul Juice, a brand of bottled Korean pear juices, has been acquired by Arizona-based CPG portfolio company FoodStory Brands, three years after its founding in a St. Louis University dorm room. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
FoodStory is a family-owned company specializing in co-branded CPG products whose portfolio includes Fresh Cravings dips, Upper Cut meat and cheese snacks, and a variety of film- and television-themed products such as Barbie ice cream, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles frozen pizzas, Hot Ones frozen chicken bites and Minions chicken nuggets, among others.
According to founder Luis Manta, the acquisition of Seoul Juice came about after he met with the FoodStory team earlier this year seeking a potential partnership and advice on how he could best scale the startup.
“When we got to a point where I couldn’t scale it on my own, I was asking for advice from quite a few partners, and FoodStory came in and wanted to get involved,” Manta told BevNET. “Going into it, it wasn’t meant to be an acquisition, it was more for partnership help. But once they took a look at the financials and our results at retail, they decided to get on board and get behind it with their team.”
Seoul Juice was created in 2021 by Manta, who at the time was majoring in business and a member of St. Louis University’s varsity soccer team. It was his soccer coach who inadvertently steered him to the Korean pear, as he quickly acquired “palate fatigue” from excessive amounts of coconut water given to players and wanted to find an alternative, natural hydration option.
After ordering canned pears imported from Korea for his own personal use, he decided to begin mass producing the juice and launched Seoul Juice later that year while he was still an undergrad. Aside from a small friends and family round, the brand took on no major investment and was primarily bootstrapped, he said.
Manta estimated that Seoul Juice’s North American footprint is now around 1,000 doors nationwide and had a seven-figure run rate ahead of its sale to FoodStory, with retail accounts such as Schnucks, Bristol Farms and Costco with a presence primarily in the Midwest region and select small grocers in Canada.
Until now, Seoul Juice had been run with Manta as its only full time employee, relying on consultants and part-time workers to establish the brand. As well, Manta said that as a scrappy startup he lacked access to data and other resources that FoodStory will now be able to provide the brand.
“Most of our money was going towards inventory when we were scaling before, so I’m very excited to have a partner who has a consumer insights team, that has a digital and shopper marketing team, and a social media team to really grow on the foundation that I built,” he said.
Under the new ownership, Manta said that Seoul Juice will be run day-to-day by FoodStory COO Nicole Parker but he will remain with the business full time as the founder.
“Nicole was the one able to scale Fresh Cravings, so I’m excited to have her come on board and run the company,” Manta noted. “FoodStory is woman-owned and family-owned, so that was another really important thing to me – to be part of a company that has similar values to myself and a team that has already scaled quite a few products.”
Looking to the new year, Seoul Juice is now gearing up to expand in the club channel, with around 200 doors expected to open in January. As well, Manta said the brand will make its debut in convenience stores by going system wide with QuikTrip, beginning January 1.
FoodStory’s R&D team is also now working to develop new flavors for the brand. Currently, Seoul Juice makes a single original flavor in 16.9 oz. bottles, but the company will introduce “a couple new flavors” early next year, Manta added.
“When people think of Korean pear, it’s had a lot of success as produce, but there hasn’t really been a company [in the U.S.] to really embrace it and put it into a CPG product. So, I’m excited to be the brand that people think of when they think of Korean pears.”