Tous les Jours, the next K-bakery to lure US customers

Tous les Jours, South Korea’s second-largest bakery franchise, is rapidly expanding its US business by attracting customers with greater variety than local bakeshops amid the growing popularity of K-food.

The US unit of CJ Foodville Corp.’s bakery brand aims to operate stores in 22 states by the end of 2022 after logging its largest-ever operating profit last year since it started business there in 2004.

Tous les Jours is scheduled to open new branches in New Haven, Connecticut, Haverford, Pennsylvania and Omaha, Nebraska this month, expanding its presence to 20 states, according to CJ Foodville, the franchise and restaurant business unit of South Korean conglomerate CJ Group.

“These new branches are the first ones in those states, which are expected to play a significant role in raising Tous les Jours brand awareness,” said a CJ Foodville official. “The Omaha branch will be set up as a bakery café concept to help expand stores in the central regions.”

Tous les Jours had bakeshops in 17 states last year and 12 states in 2018. It currently operates branches in major US cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Texas and Chicago.

The US was Tous les Jours’ first overseas market. Tous les Jours initially only operated its own stores but shifted its focus to the franchise business in 2009.

Its bigger rival in South Korea, Paris Baguette, run by SPC Group, has successfully settled in the market by ranking the 38th-largest US-based franchise in 2021 on the top 400 list, compiled by Franchise Times, an American trade publication covering franchising in the country.

ABOUT 200 BREAD VS SINGLE ITEM

Tous les Jours attracted US customers with products that local bakeries do not produce, according to CJ Foodville’s analysis. It offers about 200 items on average including cream bread and loaves from each branch, while US bakeshops usually sell single items such as baguettes or croissants.

Its popular Milk Cream Bread in South Korea became a best-selling item in the US as the soft and fluffy milk bread filled with a generous amount of thick milk cream has 45.5% milk content.

Its cakes became Tous les Jours’ signature items as the bakery chain uses moist whipped cream for cakes in cute designs, compared with butter cakes sold at domestic bakeshops. It launched cakes such as the Mango Cloud Cake for customers in the US.

Tous les Jours focused on the cake business in the US as demand for parties at home increased in line with the COVID-19 era.

The bakery chain’s US unit has been in the black for the last four straight years. Its sales jumped 36.6% to 51.1 billion won ($40.4 million) in 2021, helping net profit more than double to 4.7 billion won.

Write to Kyeong-je Han at hankyung@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.