Published : Oct. 29, 2013 - 19:33
Ediya Coffee president Moon Chang-ki
Local coffee chain Ediya Coffee has been busily expanding and on Tuesday, it marked the opening of its 1,000th store. By 2017, the company hopes to double the number to 2,000.
“Armed with good prices and compact stores, we plan on opening up to 2,000 outlets over the next four years,” said Ediya president Moon Chang-ki at a press conference.
Mainly provincial towns will be targeted, as Ediya believes its brand penetration is still low in those areas.
The CEO, however, appeared to be careful about plans to go abroad, as a previous venture in China turned sour.
Instead, Moon said Ediya would focus on coffee mix: “We’ll be producing up to 2 million of coffee mix for China, after which we’ll take it to Southeast Asia.”
Ediya’s central marketing strategy involves minimizing the shop size to encourage take-out. This ultimately means a better bottom line for the store owners and helps make up for the fact that Ediya coffee, at an average 2,500 won, is cheaper than most of its rivals.
Despite the expansions Ediya has been showing of late, Moon said he hoped for less regulations.
“We hope the government and our rivals, for that matter, won’t try to assess Ediya with numbers,” he said.
Last year, Ediya posted 42 billion won in sales to avoid the Fair Trade Commission’s stringent trade regulations applied to firms with sales of 50 billion won or more.
By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)