Paris Baguette expands to Canada with first store in Toronto

SPC, the South Korean food and beverage conglomerate, announced the opening of the first Paris Baguette store in Toronto, Canada, on March 23. The move brings Paris Baguette's global presence to ten countries.

The store, located on the first floor of the Yonge Sheppard Centre, covers an area of 214 square meters and offers seating for 20 customers. The self-service store serves a variety of items, including salads, sandwiches and strawberry cream cakes.

While Paris Baguette has opened its first overseas locations as directly-run stores, the Canadian store has been introduced as a franchise. SPC has accumulated business know-how through its franchise business in the United States and established a local corporation in 2020, allowing it to actively expand franchise operations from the outset.

Paris Baguette aims to open seven more stores in Canada by the end of the year and increase its North American presence, including in the US and Canada, to more than 1,000 by 2030.

"Canada is a strategically important market for us due to its position in the English-speaking world and its coverage of the French cultural sphere," said SPC CEO Heo Jin-soo, who oversees the global business of Paris Baguette.

He emphasized the company's goal to capture a share of the world food market worth almost $9 trillion.

According to the state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation, the global food market was valued at $8,881 billion last year, which is 7.1 times the size of the automobile market and 4.5 times the size of the information technology (IT) market.

Write to Jiyoon Yang at yang@hankyung.com