Korean bakery chains attract US customers with bread variety, cosy ambiance

South Korean bakery franchises are enjoying growing popularity in the US, appealing to local customers with a variety of bread products and bakery cafés, despite the prices more than doubling those of the same products in Korea.

Paris Baguette, Korea’s top bakery franchise that entered the US in 2005, runs around 120 cafés, including 13 in New York City. The food giant SPC subsidiary is selling its sweet red bean bread for an average of $2.60 per unit, around 120% higher than 1,500 won ($1.20) for the same product in Korea.

The average selling prices for choux cream bread and milk bread in the US are $2.70 and $5.40, respectively 2.3 times and 2.1 times the prices in Korea.   

Tous les Jours, under the CJ Foodville Corp. umbrella, started its US business in 2004 and operates around 80 stores there. The bakery chain sells its mocha roll cake for $25 per unit, double the price in the home country. Its kimchi croquette sells for $4.40 in the US, 2.3 times the price in Korea.

US local consumers are attracted by more than 200 products, including pastries, sandwiches, pizza bread, desserts and cakes, as well as the ambiance of the cafés where they can enjoy drinks and bread in a cozy atmosphere, industry sources said.

Backed by their growing general popularity, a wider range of local businesspeople are opening the bakery chain stores in major commercial areas in the US these days, while in the past it was mainly Korean Americans who operated the bakeries nearby Korean supermarkets, a Tous Les Jours official said.

The Korean bakery franchises are set to aggressively expand their US businesses.

Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours are considering building bread production plants in the country. Each company aims to increase the number of its stores in the US to 1,000 by 2030.


Write to Soo-Jung Ha at agatha77@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.