Powder power: South Korean women’s wellness and beauty specialist NGT eyes Asian expansion with Active Enzyme sticks

NGT is well known on South Korean social media due to intense investments into working with local KOLs such as 154kg who promote and sell its products, and also lays claim to the top spot in the Korean Satisfaction Consumer Index for six consecutive years from 2019 to 2024.

According to NGT CEO Kim Soo An, the firm has made its mark in the local market and most young women consumers are already familiar with it, so the time is right for it to focus its efforts on expanding into more overseas markets.

“Our current expansion targets include Japan, which is already in progress, as well as Thailand and Singapore,”​ she told FoodNavigator-Asia/NutraIngredients-Asia​ at the recent Vitafoods Asia 2024 event in Bangkok, Thailand.

“We are choosing to focus on Asian markets with our product as we believe that the Asian women demographic are all facing the same issues and challenges which we have already been addressing in South Korea.”​

NGT’s powdered enzyme sticks, dubbed Active Enzyme, is made with a variety of grains such as brown rice, soybeans, sorghum and barley which are fermented with probiotics.

“Active Enzyme is mainly targeted at aiding the digestion of food and the absorption of nutrients whilst also breaking down gluten, which makes it very popular with consumers looking at diet or weight loss,”​ she said.

“The enzymes trend for weight loss has been around in Japan for some time but usually as capsules or tablets – in South Korea, it is the enzyme stick format that is currently very much on-trend.​

“We believe this can also be translated to other Asian markets as the main reason for its popularity has been versatility - Many influencers post about not only consuming these enzymes directly but also putting it into bingsu, ramen, gimbap rice rolls and other everyday dishes.”​

NGT also has Light Diet enzyme sticks that contain Garcinia cambogia to target body fat reduction, and Dangdang enzyme sticks that contain banaba leaf to control blood sugar.

Other rising trends​

In addition to powdered enzymes, Kim believes that functional beverages targeted at these same areas are also fast gaining traction in Asia due to the demand for refreshing options.

“We have also developed powder formulations made to be added to water and drank as a beverage, as we have seen in South Korea that many consumers want delicious and refreshing options that they can drink as well,”​ she added.

“One example is our Eat’s Tok Pine which is a beverage powder meant to be added to water to form a carbonated diet drink – It contains Garcinia cambogia and indigestible maltodextrin to also target body fat reduction and fibre supplementation for the body to aid with weight loss and beauty.”​

Other such beverage powders include its Applephenon with apple cider vinegar and green apple applephenon that reduces body fat and suppresses appetite, and Green Coffee Bean Today with green coffee beans and arabica coffee to also reduce body fat but also generate energy from the caffeine.

“The other area we are also developing strongly is gluten-free probiotics, which are already quite popular in the US due to their high gluten intake,”​ she added.

“The thing is that in Asia we actually also consume a lot of gluten, so we feel that there is very strong potential to also develop this segment in the region particularly with more and more of our consumers interested in health and wellness.”​