▲ Sea & Food / CEO Insik Yoo

Sea & Food is a South Korean food company making and selling a variety of seafood and meat. The company makes its competitiveness in the market with rational price and hygienic processing and distribution. Running the business from 1997, it made a notable expansion in 2000, built the office building in 2007, added a cold warehouse in Pyeongtaek in 2013 and completed a large scale processing factory, warehouse and pork cutlet factory in Hwaseong in 2018. 

CEO

CEO Insik Yoo started with a 1 ton fish truck with only 270,000 won ($218) cash back in the days. He sold fresh fish at good price by driving around towns and villages. Time to time, he read books on business and successful people, brewed his dream, planned it in detail, put it into action year by year and grew the mere fish peddling business as a big food processing and distribution company today. 

Ongoing Plan

Not complacent, he has recently brought up a healthier food plan that is to remove all unnatural substances such as additives and colorings on dumplings, hams and pork cutlets. Also working on is to introduce attractive brands and events such as Cooking Day (tentative).

"It is true that quality and good price still play crucial but I think creative and fun brand names and promotional events equally play important. Since we secured quality and price, we will strengthen brand value and fun events from this year" says Yoo.

All In One Services

Sea & Food boasts all in one services that move things smoothly from processing to packaging and distribution. Some say Sea & Food's distribution system works better than that of large food companies. Ingredients from overseas directly arrive at the door of the company's processing facilities without intermediary dealers to secure freshness as well as hygiene. 

The company's R&D team is passionate on improving and developing new food alongside operational and facility upgrade. The cold chain lets the driver or the deliverer knows the temperature of the food in real time to keep the freshness on the go.

Regular Staff Training

All employees are working full time and receive training on safety, hygiene, packaging, distribution and customer services on a regular basis. From this year, the company started running 4.5 work day a week alongside 10 day holiday a year for all employees. As a result, most staff members now start to prepare to leave at 10am on every Friday and the 10 day holiday is rotating department by department to keep the work rolling. 

“A good work environment increases performance of staff. But good welfare contributes to it even more. Here at Sea & Food all staff and employees work together as a team, respect each other and harvest and share fruits. At the end of the day, they are the driving force of the company and the business" emphasizes Yoo.

Quality and Price

Quality and price are two of the factors Yoo made a success in his business. If many fish cakes, for example, use around 45 to 48% real fish flesh, Yoo contained 78% which is the maximum amount to make the cake gooey. Despite processed food, Sea & Food's food is being welcomed by around 1,800 companies and organizations for quality and price. 

Taking Rough Road

Yoo is a man who prefers a rough road to a paved road. Hardship, he says, has made him stronger and it was one of the driving force of his energy and entrepreneurship. He is still willing to take more rough roads than paved roads as he believes inspirations and opportunities lie on rough roads. He still reads extensively and sleeps 5 days a week in his office to brew ideas and action plans. 

Sales

Sea & Food saw 75 billion won ($60.7 million) sales last year. This year, Yoo is looking forward to seeing more than 100 billion won. He is expecting export to Vietnam this year and pushing forward IPO as a long term perspective. He recently has introduced ESG as company's operational philosophy. <PowerKorea>