Byung-hyun Kim, who said he had “lost his entire fortune,” posts 93 million won in daily sausage sales

[Financial News] Former Major League Baseball player Byung-hyun Kim, who previously endured the closure of 11 food-service businesses, has made a comeback with a traditional German-style meat-processing business selling sausages and pork knuckles, and is now setting his sights on the global market. Building on an exclusive supply deal for a major festival, he has demonstrated notable commercial success, with daily sales of around 93 million won.
According to the SBS variety show “Same Bed, Different Dreams 2: You Are My Destiny,” which aired on the 27th, Kim now operates a 100-pyeong meat-processing plant and took part as the sole food and beverage (F&B) supplier at Oktoberfest Seoul, the first global beer festival held in South Korea.
Over ten days, the supply totaled 30,000 items, including 25,000 sausages and 5,000 pork knuckles. Kim said, “I received an offer to supply directly after German representatives there praised the quality as ‘the closest to traditional German production methods’” and called it “the largest supply contract in our history, with the company’s survival on the line.” His strategy of handcrafting premium products based on authentic local recipes had paid off.
At the festival, his products also outperformed competing offerings. At an event that drew an average of at least 7,000 people a day, Kim’s meat-processing brand swept the top two spots in sales, outselling chicken, a popular choice among the public. Daily sales totaled 1,500 sausages and 740 pork knuckles. Revenue that day came to 93,412,000 won, combining approximately 57 million won from sausages and 36 million won from pork knuckles.
The achievement came after 11 previous failures across various food-service businesses, including Japanese restaurants, steakhouses, Thai restaurants, and craft burger shops. Kim reached a turning point by shifting away from a food-service model centered on standalone outlets and restructuring the business around manufacturing and processing-based B2B (business-to-business) sales and event-specific distribution for large-scale events.
Kim’s team plans to accelerate efforts to develop sales channels in overseas markets, building on its ability to reliably supply large volumes for this event. Kim said he hoped to “successfully complete this festival as a reference case and begin exploring a full-scale global expansion.”

[email protected] Young-jin Moon Reporter