Theborn Korea, the restaurant franchise group founded by celebrity chef Paik Jong-won, said Tuesday it has moved into the execution phase of its North American expansion strategy, signing a partnership agreement with a Canadian hotel operator and advancing sauce-distribution talks with food distributors in Canada and the United States.

Paik, who has been on a North American business trip since Aug. 2, signed a memorandum of understanding with Sunray Group, a Canadian hotel and real estate company that operates about 80 hotels under global brands including Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt. Under the agreement, the two companies will convert a restaurant Sunray currently operates in Markham in Toronto, into a Theborn Korea restaurant brand, with further openings planned across Sunray's hotel and commercial properties.

Paik also met with executives from two major Canadian food distributors to discuss expanding sales of the company's TBK sauce line and other products. Talks with a Korean-Canadian grocery chain covered joint promotional displays, a food court pop-up and TBK sauce-based menu items at its in-house restaurants, while discussions with a separate Canadian distributor focused on broadening TBK sauce sales beyond business-to-business restaurant supply into direct retail.

In the U.S., Theborn Korea is partnering with a global food company to begin local production of sauces for its Hong Kong Banjum restaurant brand, starting with sweet-and-sour pork sauce, with plans to expand the range over time. The company said local production would serve as a supply hub for North America, cutting logistics costs and delivery times compared with exporting from Korea. The two companies are also working on jointly developed home meal replacement products tailored to North American tastes.

"Business opportunities that Paik personally identified in the field are now translating into concrete partnerships with local companies," a Theborn Korea official said, adding that the company plans to keep expanding restaurant openings, production and distribution abroad.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.