From bank teller to mandu mogul: How one woman turned a dying market stall into a K-food brand

When a successful bank employee took over a traditional market mandu shop on the verge of closing, people around her were baffled. "Why would you quit a good job to make mandu at a market?" they asked. But the little shop that once pulled in just 370,000 won ($240) a day has since climbed to the top of the national frozen mandu sales rankings and broken into overseas markets, growing into Cheongju's most recognized local food brand. The woman behind that transformation — turning an aging market stall into a global K-food brand — is Lee Ji-eun, 40, CEO of Oldain.

Lee once worked as an assistant manager at KEB Hana Bank, earning 70 million won a year including performance bonuses. But when she heard that a mandu shop she had visited for years as a regular was about to shut its doors, she made a bold decision. She left the bank in February 2019, spent a year and a half preparing to launch a business, and in August 2020 finally took over the shop, beginning a new chapter in her life.

"I didn't want to see a place that every Cheongju local had visited at least once just disappear," Lee said. "I thought someone had to carry it on, and I decided that even if that someone had to be me, it was worth trying."

Reality, however, was unforgiving. Daily sales in the year she took over hovered around 370,000 won — roughly 11 million won a month. That was barely enough to cover ingredients, wages and rent for the three people running the shop: Lee, her husband and a longtime employee who had worked there for 15 years. Leftover dough piled up, and there were days when unsold mandu had to be thrown away.

"I would make mandu from the early hours of the morning, but when I tallied up the day's sales in the evening, I could only sigh," Lee said. "I often wondered whether I had made a reckless choice."

Rather than give up, she focused on what it would take to build a brand that honored tradition. The first thing she tackled was packaging. At the market, mandu was typically sold in black plastic bags, but Lee drew up her own brand concept and designed gift-ready packaging. She then collaborated with professional designers through government support programs to steadily refine the brand. The store's interior, lighting and props — including actual mandu trays — were all chosen to weave the brand's identity into every corner of the space.

The COVID-19 pandemic turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Foot traffic dried up so badly that many traditional market vendors considered closing for good, but Lee chose to pivot to online sales and brand building.

"The online sales I started just to survive ended up becoming a new opportunity for growth," she said.

Yukgeori Somunan Mandu ranked first in the frozen mandu category on Naver Smart Store in 2022, putting a Cheongju traditional market product on the radar of consumers across the country.

An appearance on EBS's "Extreme Jobs" provided another springboard. After the show featured the pre-dawn mandu-making process and the daily lives of the staff, orders and in-person visits poured in from around the country.

"Before the broadcast, I used to head to work worrying whether we'd have any customers that Monday," Lee said. "Afterward, there were many days when we were up before dawn just to keep up with orders. That was the first time I truly believed the business could really grow."

The moment that has stayed with her most is a single remark from a customer. "Someone told me, 'It tasted just like the mandu my mother used to make — so I came back with my parents,'" Lee said. "That one sentence gave me more strength than any increase in sales. It made me realize that what we make isn't just mandu — it's someone's memory."

Yukgeori Somunan Mandu has since grown into Cheongju's defining local food brand.

To pursue her ambition of building a global food-tech company, Lee established Oldain in November 2024. The company operates franchise, food manufacturing, retail and export businesses under the Yukgeori Somunan Mandu brand and currently runs 15 stores, including both company-owned and franchised locations. The Yukgeori Somunan Mandu brand, operated as a sole proprietorship, posted sales of about 2.5 billion won last year and is targeting more than 3 billion won this year.

The company has recently been expanding exports to the United States, Australia and Thailand. Its vegan mandu, in particular, was developed from the outset as a strategic product aimed at global markets. By preserving the light, clean flavor of the original dried radish mandu while using only plant-based ingredients, the product has won over overseas consumers.

Government support has also played a role in the brand's growth. Oldain was selected for the Korea Food Industry Cluster Promotion Agency's youth food startup package, through which it built up its product development, brand strategy, design, marketing and overseas expansion capabilities — and was also named a top-performing company in the program.

Through support from the Korea Agency of Education, Promotion and Information Service in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the company refined its vegan mandu recipe and improved the product through expert sensory evaluations. It secured overseas distribution channels at export consultation meetings with buyers from the United States, Vietnam and Thailand, and received consulting on country-specific packaging improvements and halal certification for entry into Middle Eastern markets. Through an investment-linked program, the company also attracted 200 million won in investment and secured government research and development funding through a connection with an operator of TIPS, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' privately led technology startup support program.

Oldain posted sales of 1.45 billion won last year. From January through June this year, it recorded about 900 million won in sales, with monthly average sales exceeding 140 million won. The company expects full-year sales to surpass 2 billion won, factoring in the busy second half of the year and continued export expansion.

Lee considers the brand's roots to be paramount. That is why even now, for its own-production items, the company sources raw ingredients as much as possible through suppliers within Cheongju's Yukgeori Traditional Market. As output has grown significantly, some production is handled through original equipment manufacturing and local overseas production, but the brand's roots remain firmly in Cheongju's Yukgeori Traditional Market.

"Our brand started at Yukgeori Market in Cheongju and grew on the back of local produce and tradition," Lee said. "I want to build a brand that goes beyond the market and reaches the world."

"The company that my husband and I started together has now grown into an organization with many employees," she added. "What makes me prouder than the sales figures is the fact that we've been able to create jobs in our community."

Her goal is 10 billion won in sales by 2030. She plans to expand the franchise business and enter European markets, with the ambition of building a world-class K-food brand rooted in a traditional market.

To young people considering starting a business in agriculture or fisheries, she offered this advice: "Agriculture and fisheries are industries where you can absolutely succeed, but the days when it was enough just to grow good produce are over. You need to design processing, branding, content and distribution together — that's where competitiveness comes from."

She added: "You have to be prepared for the physical demands, the risks that come with seasonal fluctuations and raw material supply, and the cash-flow pressure in the first two or three years after launch. The brand we build and nurture takes responsibility for a part of someone's life — that, I believe, is the essence of agriculture and fisheries, and the essence of a brand."

"I want to prove that a world-class K-food brand can absolutely be built from a traditional market," she said. "I will show, through Yukgeori Somunan Mandu, that a local food brand born in a region can compete in the global market."