A photo of World Cones, an ice cream cone, which has long been the top-selling ice cream cone in Korea for many years put out by Lotte Confectionary and celebrated the 30th anniversary of its introduction in the market in March 1986.(Photo:Lotte Confectionary)

Lotte Confectionary’s World Cone, an ice cream cone, celebrated its 30th anniversary in March. It was launched in Mach 1986 with a price tag of 300 won-a-piece.

The ice cream cone was, and still is, a little larger than its rivals by 10ml to 30ml. It surpassed rival ice cream cones 10 years after it was released, and has maintained the top position ever since. 

Its sales hovered around 6.8 billion won in the early years. Now annual figures have surpassed 90 billion won, due to steadily rising sales in Korea. The company projects that annual sales will hit 100 billion won for the first time this year.

Nearly 2.7 billion Lotte World Cones have been sold over the past 30 years, with sales up to 1.2 trillion won ($1 billion). This is equivalent to Korea's entire population of 50 million people eating 54 cones each.

Lotte Confectionary launched the rich vanilla ice cream product with a crunchy waffle cone in 1986. It has been the most consumed ice cream product for 20 consecutive years since March 1996, when it topped the ice cream market for the first time. If the ice cream cones sold so far were lined up in one line, they would wrap the globe 15 times, stretching for 607,500 km.

"This year, World Cone is expected to be the first Korean ice creams to record annual sales exceeding 100 billion won ($81 million)," Lotte Confectionery said.

Lotte Confectionery attributed the ice cream's success to its flavor and size. After all, the confectionery was named World Cone because of its larger-than-average size. Even today, it remains larger than its competitors' products, Lotte claims, and is tastier as well. 

Lotte Confectionery, the parent company of Lotte Group, opened its doors in 1967 and swiftly solidified its reputation as a leader of Korea’s food industry by implementing innovative product development, diversified marketing strategies, and advanced logistics system.

“We currently operate high-tech plants within Korea at Yeongdeungpo, Yangsan, Pyeongtaek, and Daejeon for commercial production of more than 200 confectionery, ice cream, and health supplement products,” the company said. “We have been guarding our undefeated No. 1 market power in Korea for gums, candies, biscuits, chocolates, and ice cream, while our newer ventures namely, the premium ice cream franchise Natuur and health supplement brand Health 1 are also gaining prominence.”

They added: “Our marketing expertise has helped us launch numerous hit items every year, while our portfolio contains a number of mega-brands that have been under meticulous brand management for years. Our manufacturing bases expand abroad with plants in Vietnam, Russia, India, and China, while our recent acquisition of Vietnamese snack manufacturer Bibica and premium Belgian Chocolaterie Guylian provided new steps for our advancement into the global management scene.”

Lotte Confectionery will reinforce market power in its stronghold, diversify new products and channels, and continue to expand into the overseas market to gain the reputation of being Asia’s greatest confectionery. 

Lotte Confectionery has been taking a lion’s share of Korea’s ice cream market by offering an array of popular bar, cone, cup, pencil, and bucket ice creams that cater to all tastes. With the latest premium natural-ingredient brand Natuur, the company says it is able to offer a wider range of products, from regular day-to-day items to more sophisticated premium flavors.

“Our confectionery line-up covers a wide range of snacks including gums, candies, biscuits, and chocolates,” they said. “Our Juicy Fresh, Spearmint, and Freshmint chewing gums and Ghana Chocolate have served as long-time favorites for more than four decades, while the Xylitol chewing gum is enjoying tremendous popularity since its launch, thanks to its ability to reduce the risk of tooth decay.”

As part of efforts to boost the well-being of modern men who live in an increasingly demanding atmosphere, Lotte Confectionery launched a health supplement brand Health 1 to produce various supplements with vitamins, minerals, granules, red ginseng extracts, and other animal- and plant-based extracts. 

“In line with our goals of popularizing such health supplements, we have revamped our distribution process to improve accessibility so that these products are made available at regular retailers for a reasonable price,” Lotte Confectionery said.