A Phuc Long Coffee & Tea store in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | Photo credit: Phuc Long Coffee & Tea

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Phuc Long Coffee & Tea will enter the US market in July 2021, the company has announced on its Facebook page. The store in Garden Grove, California, will be the Ho Chi Minh City-based coffee chain’s first store outside of Vietnam.
 
In May 2021, Phuc Long sold a minority stake in its business to Vietnamese investment firm Masan Group for $15m. According to Phuc Long, the funds will be used to establish the first of a planned 2,200 coffee and tea kiosks at VinMart+ convenience stores across Vietnam.
 
Despite World Coffee Portal data showing the US branded coffee shop market suffered a 24% sales decline in 2020 due to Covid-19 disruption, the market continues to attract investment from coffee chains internationally. In June 2021, Japanese boutique coffee chain % Arabica opened its first US store in Brooklyn, New York.  
 
Phuc Long’s US debut comes hot on the heels of fellow Vietnamese coffee chain TNI King Coffee, which opened its first US store in California in May 2021. In a press release, King Coffee said it planned to open 20 US coffee shops in 2021 and is aiming to operate 100 by 2022. TNI King Coffee has sold coffee products at US supermarkets since 2016 and in 2020 opened a US Headquarters in California to facilitate transactions with domestic partners.
 
Italy’s illycaffè, and Filipino restaurant group Jollibee Foods Corporation, which purchased US coffee chain The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for around $350m in 2019, have also set their sights on growth in the US coffee shop market in 2021.
 
Phuc Long Coffee & Tea Café operates around 82 coffee shops across Vietnam, which is the fifth-largest branded coffee shop market in East Asia, exceeding 3,800 outlets at the end of 2020, according to World Coffee Portal data.