Paris Baguette seeks a greater slice of the US bakery café market

A Paris Baguette store in Dallas, Texas | Photo Credit: SPC Group 

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Paris Baguette is seeking to grow its presence in the US bakery café market. In a press release, the South Korean coffee chain said it had identified a gap in the market for community-focused bakery concepts and stated its intention to lead the ‘transformation’ of the bakery café space in the US.
 
“Our research went deep into the community, ensuring that our brand positioning was designed to fill important gaps,” said Pete Bell, Chief Marketing Officer, Paris Baguette America, which manages the brand’s US franchise operation.
 
“People crave food brands that ignite all senses and ultimately bring them great joy. In order to get to 1,000 locations, we have to give the guest something they are not used to in their communities. We are confident we can fill that gap with our elevated neighbourhood café concept,” Bell added.
 
In May 2021, Paris Baguette stated its intention to open 1,000 new stores across the US by 2030. However, since opening its first US store in 2005, the brand has only managed to open around 90 stores in America’s $36bn branded coffee shop market.
 
Paris Baguette is the largest food-focused coffee chain in South Korea and operates around 4,000 stores globally. While most of its stores are located in its native market, Paris Baguette’s parent company SPC Group operates around 430 stores across China, the US, France, Vietnam and Singapore. In June 2021, Paris Baguette opened its first store in Cambodia.
 
SPC Group operates a total of 17 hospitality brands in South Korea and internationally, including Paris Croissant, Caffè Pascucci, Jamba Juice, and Shake Shack.
 
Paris Baguette is not the only international coffee brand seeking to grow its presence in the US. In May 2021, Vietnamese retail coffee and café chain TNI King Coffee made its US debut with a store in California and announced a target to open 100 locations across the country by 2022. In June, Vietnam’s Phuc Long Coffee & Tea and Japanese boutique coffee chain %Arabica both opened their first US stores.
 
Meanwhile, German coffee giant Tchibo is continuing to grow its presence in the US retail coffee market after partnering with distribution company Rainmaker Food Solutions, LLC in late 2020.