Joining NANRO Next as a patron, Jik KIM built more than a decade of hands-on experience in food exports and the European market before relocating to France and opening European retail channels firsthand. In 2020 he founded Lou et Lang — a startup dedicated to bringing Korean food onto global shelves. Within three years the company grew to roughly KRW 30 billion in revenue and won Korea's Trade Day Export Tower three years running, becoming the first Korean-food operator to secure a dedicated K-Food section at Carrefour, France's largest retailer, and signing an exclusive supply agreement with Europe's leading food wholesaler METRO. Operating from three bases — Seoul, Paris, and Oiten in Germany — Lou et Lang carries its own brands allgroo, Korean Street, and Maison de Corée into European retail.
The brand name Lou et Lang carries the names of his two sons and the meaning "joy beneath the universe," a signal of how he thinks about Korean food — not as a passing trend but as a culture meant to outlast generations. Guided by the mission "the best Korean experience, delivered even to a village grandmother anywhere in the world," Jik KIM joins NANRO Next as a patron on ground that meets naturally with the language its chefs are building for themselves on the world stage.
