A rendering of Paris Baguette's new community-focused store format | Photo credit: Paris Baguette

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Paris Baguette is re-positioning itself as a neighbourhood café in the US, introducing what it calls more community-focused store formats and branding.
 
The South Korean bakery and coffee chain said its research had shown the association between communities and local bakeries has ‘grown distant’, and that the brand was now in a strong position to ‘fill that void and bring back that intimate dynamic’. 
 
Key points of the revamp, which was delivered creative agency Push and interior design firm Zebra, include modernised café layouts, new brand packaging alongside an enhanced digital and mobile presence. 
 
“We believe that every neighbourhood deserves to have its very own bakery café and we're on a mission to make that happen," said Pete Bell, Chief Marketing Officer, Paris Baguette.
 
“Our new design reinforces our goal to create a heartfelt, authentic and detail-oriented atmosphere that sparks moments of joy, community, connection, and changes our definition of hospitality,” Bell added.
 
World Coffee Portal research shows neighbourhood cafés have experienced an uptick in sales during the pandemic as lockdowns forced more people to work from home and shop locally. Paris Baguette’s new approach is similar to that of US boutique café group, Bluestone Lane, which has successfully deployed a community-focused strategy since launching in 2013.
 
Paris Baguette entered the US market in 2005 and currently operates around 90 bakery cafés, primarily along the east and west coasts. In 2021, the brand set an ambitious target to open 1,000 news stores in the US by 2030.
 
Paris Baguette is the largest food-focused coffee chain in South Korea and operates around 4,000 stores globally. While most of its stores are located in its native market, Paris Baguette’s parent company SPC Group operates around 430 stores across China, the US, France, Vietnam and Singapore. In 2021, Paris Baguette opened its first stores in Cambodia and Indonesia.
 
SPC Group operates a total of 17 hospitality brands in South Korea and internationally, including Paris Croissant, Caffè Pascucci, Jamba Juice, and Shake Shack.