Paris Baguette's debut Canadian store in Toronto (pictured) opened in March 2023 | Photo credit: SPC Group

Paris Baguette America has unveiled plans open a combination of corporate-run and franchised outlets across Canada this year. 
 

The South Korean bakery café chain opened its first Canadian outlet at the Yonge Sheppard Centre shopping mall in Toronto in March 2023 and plans a further six stores before the end of 2023. 

Speaking to US franchising publication 1851, Paris Baguette America Chief Development Officer Mark Mele said ‘population explosion’ across Canada’s largest cities makes outlet growth in Toronto, Alberta, Edmonton and Vancouver inevitable.  

Canada's population grew by over a million people for the first time ever last year, largely driven by state-backed efforts to entice workers from overseas to counter labour shortages. In 2022, the Canadian government announced a plan to welcome 500,000 immigrants a year by 2025.  

With plans to reach 100 Canadian stores by 2030, Paris Baguette is seeking to open both franchised and company-owned outlets concurrently, which the bakery café chain said demonstrates its confidence in the market. It has signed nearly 20 franchise agreements to-date, Mele added. 

“We did the same thing in the US for years, and again recently, to really energise the growth of the flagship markets around the country. We’re going into Canada with intentions to start in Toronto with a few remarkable flagship-type locations that we’ll put corporate money into and grow from there,” said Mele. 

Paris Baguette opened its first US store in 2005 and began franchising in the country in 2015.  

The bakery café chain, which expects to open 60 new US stores in 2023 to reach 180 outlets, opened 13 new US stores in the first three months of 2023. 

It has a longer-term goal of reaching 1,000 outlets across North America by 2030.