[Edaily Reporter Han Jeon-jin ] Rice, loosely packed by hand like individual grains of sushi rice, flows ceaselessly in square shapes along the conveyor belt. After being shaped, the triangular rice balls pass through an automated scale and an inspection camera in sequence, then gather on a circular collection tray where they spin round and round. Workers in dust-proof suits move busily back and forth. The line never stops. This is the scene of the new manufacturing process applied to GS25 convenience stores’ “Triangular Rice Balls with Bite-Sized Grains.” “It’s the difference between pressed rice and hand-molded rice,” explains Kim Joong-yeon, plant manager at FreshSub’s Osan factory.

◇“Forget about stamped rice”… A “rice grain innovation” developed over a year
When I visited the FreshSub factory in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, on the 22nd, the production of triangle rice balls was in full swing with no time to rest. This facility serves as the forefront of GS Holdings’ ready-to-eat meal innovation, where a new process designed to preserve the texture of the rice in triangle rice balls was first implemented. FreshSub, a food manufacturing subsidiary of GS Retail(007070), operates the Osan plant. With a total floor area of 4,953 square meters (approximately 1,498 pyeong), the facility produces 120,000 meals per day—including gimbap, triangle rice balls, boxed lunches, and sandwiches—supplying over 50 varieties of ready-to-eat meals to stores in the southern Seoul metropolitan area and the Chungcheong region. Among these, gimbap and triangle rice balls account for over 80,000 units, well over half of the total.

The key to the new process is the extrusion stage, where the rice is formed into a flat sheet. Conventional equipment used upper and lower rollers to compress the rice into a sheet 15–20 mm thick before cutting it. Since this process relied heavily on compression, the texture inevitably became firm. The new process drops the rice in a “shutter-style” manner—as if snapping it off—without excessive pressure, leaving a layer of air between the grains. This is the first time this method has been attempted in the domestic convenience store industry, and even in Japan, only a few state-of-the-art factories have adopted it. Plant Manager Kim explained, “The first generation was stamped out of a mold; the second generation spread the rice out widely before folding and compacting it; and this third-generation process gently shapes the rice by lightly pinching the rice mass.” He added, “Although the difference is only a few millimeters, the texture in the mouth is completely different.”

The difference is also evident in the numbers. Even with the same amount of rice, the thickness of the triangular rice balls increased by about 25%, from 32 mm to 40 mm. The number of rice grains that break during the shaping process also decreased by about 9%. Toppings naturally seep into the air pockets, ensuring the flavor is evenly distributed throughout the product, and the rice balls do not harden easily even when kept cold. Currently, the new process has been prioritized for one of the four triangle rice ball production lines at the factory. The transition was not without its challenges. While incorporating air into the rice increased its volume, it also made the rice less resilient; if compressed during transport, the product becomes defective. To address this, the number of boxes stacked per layer was reduced, and delivery protocols were meticulously adjusted with the logistics center to minimize impact during transit.

Ultimately, it is the rice that determines the taste of the rice. FreshSub uses only 100% domestically produced new-crop rice, and all incoming rice undergoes a 100% inspection; any batches that fail to meet standards are rejected. The company even maintains dedicated testing equipment to measure rice quality and a taste evaluation team to compare the quality of its rice with that of competitors using data. The rice managed in this way is cooked in a fully automated, gas-fired cast-iron cauldron. Last year, the Osan plant became the first in the industry to receive Smart HACCP certification. Plant Manager Kim stated, “The accumulation of such automation and data management laid the foundation for this process improvement.”

◇Convenience Store Quality Competition Accelerates… The Era of “Sophisticated” Ready-to-Eat Meals
This change is part of GS Holdings’ ongoing “Full Change Renewal” project, aimed at innovating the quality of its ready-to-eat meals. The company revamped its kimbap in March and its triangular kimbap in April. For the triangular gimbap, the company simultaneously updated the perilla oil-flavored seaweed wrap, the rice with improved moisture retention, increased toppings, new packaging, and even adopted a shutter-type production process. For each item, a Merchandising Manager (MD) in charge of planning is paired with a food researcher responsible for implementation to form a dedicated team. Researcher Lee Jin-young, who led the triangular gimbap project, is a former chef at the JW Marriott Hotel. “Making a single perfect serving in the kitchen is completely different from producing tens of thousands of them every day with consistent taste,” she said. “I practically lived at the factory all year long to ensure accuracy down to the gram.”

This focus on the quality of convenience foods stems from a shift in market dynamics. With the number of convenience stores nationwide now exceeding 50,000 and the market reaching saturation, competition is rapidly expanding beyond price to include taste and quality. In fact, a survey commissioned by GS Holdings from the research firm Kantar Korea late last year found that the number of consumers citing “taste and quality” as their criteria for purchasing convenience foods was nearly twice that of those citing “price.” The results are clear. Immediately following a complete product overhaul, monthly average sales of gimbap and triangle gimbap increased by 46% and 53%, respectively, compared to the previous month.

GS Holdings is not the only one entering the race for quality in ready-to-eat meals. 7-Eleven has been conducting its “Rice Project” for over a year, developing technology to slow the staling of refrigerated rice, and launched the “All-New Triangle Kimbap” last April. CU also revamped its entire ready-to-eat meal lineup in late February, and its first-quarter sales of these products rose 15.7% year-over-year. E-MART Co., Ltd. has highlighted its gimbap, which features rice cooked in water infused with kelp. This means the competition in the ready-to-eat market has expanded to include not only price but also quality.

GS25 plans to review the results and expand the new production process to its partner factories nationwide, while also broadening the scope of its full-scale product revamps to include lunch boxes and sandwiches. These moves come as ready-to-eat meals have emerged as a key product category that determines convenience stores’ competitiveness, moving beyond simply being a meal option. Kim Ji-soo, an MD at GS Retail, said, “We will continue to enhance our quality competitiveness by sequentially applying this triangular gimbap production process to regional partner factories starting in August,” adding, “We are now entering an era where convenience store ready-to-eat meals are evaluated based on taste and quality, just like restaurant menus.”