SPC to expand US Paris Baguette to 300 stores by 2020

Food group SPC plans to expand its Paris Baguette bakery chain to 300 stores in the United States by 2020, according to the company Wednesday.

SPC Chairman Hur Young-in said that he would pursue this expansion and create 10,000 jobs by 2020 during a meeting with members of the US House of Representatives on Tuesday at SPC’s headquarters in Seoul.

SPC Group Chairman Hur Young-in (right) and Republican Rep. Ed Royce of California meet at the SPC headquarters in Seoul on Tuesday. (SPC)

Reps. Ed Royce and Ami Bera, who represent California in the lower house of the US Congress and co-chair the Congressional Caucus on Korea, visited Korea and met with Hur to discuss opportunities for further cooperation between the two countries.

SPC set up a corporation in California in 2002, and opened the first Paris Baguette in Los Angeles in 2005. The group currently operates 57 Paris Baguette stores in the US, mainly in California and New York.

As of last year, SPC had invested more than $48 million in its American operations and brought in annual sales of $100 million. 

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)