Now it’s time to take a close look at a small but competitive business making a difference for the Korean economy. This week’s spotlight is on Whostyle Inc., a leader in the homemade yogurt market, whose sales of yogurt makers surpassed the 1-million mark.

Whostyle Inc. is a local franchise business that manages “Yogurberry”, a yogurt brand. The company was founded by its CEO Kim Jin-seok in 2005. Here’s how he describes his company.

Whostyle Inc. is a global yogurt company that produces yogurt that’s popular all around the world. The yogurt franchise Yogurberry was founded in 2005, and has since grown into a global business, with its products making their ways into some 20 countries, including the US, Australia, Panama and Singapore. Today, it is a health food expert company producing and exporting various health foods, such as yogurts and probiotic supplements.

From the beginning, Whostyle CEO Kim Jin-seok focused the investments into systematic research and development. After 2 years of research, the low-fat yogurt powder was created, containing only 0.1% level of fat, the lowest in the industry. This won the company the LowGi19 mark, given only to foods that are sweet but healthy, with a very low glycemic index. Whostyle has since opened yogurt shops around the world, including in China, US, Dubai, and Brazil. In 2012, Whostyle became the first Korean franchise company to win the Presidential Citation on Korea’s Trade Day. And last year, Whostyle began paving a brand new road.

Whostyle Inc. has managed the global yogurt brand “Yogurberry” for the past 10 years. We have accumulated yogurt fermentation technology, as well as a global distribution network. With such expertise, we began to question how people could enjoy natural yogurts at home. This led to the creation of the Yogurberry Yogurt Maker. Yogurberry Yogurt Maker allows you to easily make all natural yogurt. All you need to do is add boiling water, milk, and one spoonful of Yogurberry Yogurt Start into the yogurt maker. Wait 8 hours, and you’ll be able to enjoy natural yogurt, thicker and creamier than any other yogurts sold at stores.

Made with an aim to allow anyone to make fresh, healthy yogurts easily at home, Yogurberry Yogurt Maker is very simple to use. Just add regular milk and the yogurt formula into the device along with hot water, and you’re done. It may be simple to make, but tests showed that yogurt made with Whostyle Inc.’s yogurt maker contain over 900-million lactobacillus acidophilus per gram. The secret lies in Whostyle’s technology.



Instead of using electricity like other yogurt makers, Yogurberry Yogurt Maker uses the evaporation from the hot water and natural convection circulation to ferment the yogurt. The yogurt maker is designed to protect the yogurt’s texture and the probiotics in the air-fermentation technology we’ve developed. The electronic yogurt machines end up killing the probiotics with heat. So although we can’t see it with our naked eyes, the quality of the probiotic contents differs. It’s like a recreation of how yogurts were made at home in the old days.

To become the first in the country to come up with a yogurt maker that does not require electricity, Whostyle studied yogurts and probiotics for over 3 years, interviewed hundreds of homemakers for a year, and collected customers’ opinions. Whostyle’s yogurt maker allows hot water to heat up the air and gradually ferment the yogurt, keeping its texture intact and making it tastier. Thanks to this innovative product, Whostyle won the Prize of the Commissioner of Korean Intellectual Property Office at this year’s Korea Invention Day. The product also won a Gold medal at the Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Inventions. Needless to say, it’s doing well at the stores too.

Since its introduction in August 2014, we sold about 1-million units of the yogurt maker in just 8 months through customers’ word of mouth, without any promotional activities. Currently we’re getting a lot of inquiries about exports. Exports to the United States, Malaysia and Indonesia have already begun, and sales will also start very soon in China. Our product was particularly popular in the US, where it was introduced as an innovative product on home shopping channels.

It’s not just the original fermentation technology that won Whostyle’s yogurt maker its popularity. The overall milk-carton shaped design and the pink and white exterior of the yogurt maker won the hearts of the female consumers, and soon, it conquered 90% of the local yogurt maker market. No commercials and no famous models were used to reach the feat. And keeping the momentum alive, Whostyle also recently released another masterpiece.

After the release of the yogurt maker, we also developed a cheese maker, which would allow you to make cheese at home. When you put the yogurt made with the yogurt maker into the cheese maker, the milk serum is separated, and the yogurt is turned into cream cheese, which you can spread on your bread, in about 24 hours.

Following the success of the yogurt maker, Whostyle Inc. has hit yet another homerun with the cheese maker, with over 500,000 units sold in just 6 months since the release. With these successes as the foundation, Whostyle continues to develop more diverse and healthier products, growing as a small but competitive company representing the yogurt industry.