Pulmuone looking to launch instant meal vending machines in South Korea

Pulmuone Co. Ltd, a food manufacturer known for its plant-based food products, is reportedly planning to introduce instant meal vending machines in South Korea. The company is currently in talks with Yokai Express, a US-based food-tech company that develops autonomous restaurants to serve gourmet food to consumers, for this project.

Pulmuone is hoping to sign a deal with Yokai Express before July this year so it can launch the vending machines as soon as possible. These food machines can cook instant meals and available 24/7 for the convenience of everyone.

It was on Tuesday, Feb. 7, when the South Korean plant-based food producer announced its partnership move to make this type of vending machine available in the country under its food brand's name.

"Pulmuone is in due process of securing exclusive rights to distributing and installing Yokai Express' vending machines that will sell Pulmuone's products in Korea," an official of the company told The Korea Herald. "We aim for the contract to be signed during the first half of this year."

He went on to say that "The recent push for collaboration is part of strengthening Pulmuone's unstaffed business lineup. We aim to meet consumers' demand for freshly cooked food, as we noticed that demand for them was high while operating Smart Snack Life (the company's vending machine for snacks)."

Yokai Express makes vending machines that can instantly cook simple food meals. The food items like noodles and soup are stored in a freezer, and they are thawed when an order is made. The vending machine will proceed to heat the food and serve it within two minutes.

Typically, the menu items in the vending machines differ depending on the machine type. For instance, there are units that are designed especially for tonkatsu ramen, udon, and kimchi ramen, while other units are for various soups.

Japan has Yokai Express vending machines, too, and most of them are placed in subway stations there. In the United States, it has been installed at 50 locations so far, and the places include hotels, hospitals, and airports.

An insider shared that there are Yokai Express vending machines at Tesla's HQ in Austin, Texas as well, and they dispense foods that use Pulmuone's vegan meat and tofu products. Finally, these are also available in other big offices such as Netflix.