With baked goods made fresh daily, a passionate corporate leadership team, an incredible labor and operational model and strong bases of loyal consumers worldwide, it’s no wonder Paris Baguette, the over 4,000-unit bakery café franchise, has seen incredible growth in recent years. After an explosion in U.S. franchise development, the concept decided to widen its North American sights to include expansion in Canada. With a development strategy that includes both corporately owned and franchised locations, Paris Baguette is demonstrating its own commitment to the market while supporting passionate local owners in developing their own bakery café locations.

“We felt like the bakery café space needed a Paris Baguette,” said Mark Mele, chief development officer. “The people in Canada know Paris Baguette, and when we looked at what province or provinces we would roll out in, the natural progression would be to roll into Toronto, Alberta, Edmonton and Vancouver because of that population explosion.”

With one unit already open in Toronto and nearly 20 additional franchise agreements executed, Paris Baguette has been received quite positively by the Canadian market. Paris Baguette aims to open a total of seven bakery cafés in Canada before the end of the year.

Why the Market Has Already Embraced Paris Baguette – And Will Embrace It in Canada

Paris Baguette has established itself as a key player in the bakery café space by maintaining its commitment to freshly baked breads, cakes and pastries. While many other concepts in the industry have shifted toward more of an eatery model, offering primarily sandwiches and soups, or strayed from in-house baking, choosing to serve pre-made baked items, Paris Baguette continues to evaluate, hire and train passionate bakers and cakers who bring passion and pride to their work each day.

This is the approach Paris Baguette has taken for years, and it has secured a sizable loyal customer base with its standout offerings. This positions local bakery cafés to succeed when they open in new communities, but it also draws in Paris Baguette enthusiasts who are considering making the switch from guest to owner. With a modern, warm prototype that embraces the bright, elegant feel of French bakeries, Paris Baguette rounds out the experience, offering an ideal venue for morning coffee runs, quick lunches, celebratory gatherings and evening dessert.

However, the brand’s popularity with its guests is not all it offers. The business model and franchise system boasts great strengths, too.

Paris Baguette Realizes the Importance of Its People

 A strong company culture is baked into all steps of the franchise development process. In many communities, Paris Baguette owners are local heroes, bringing a product and service that is otherwise unavailable to the locals, and the entire network realizes this.

The franchisor has built a robust education, training and ongoing support system to ensure owners feel fully prepared to manage all aspects of the business at the time of their grand opening, and they have access to ongoing support with supply chain management, marketing and continuing education for new menu items or limited time offers.

The store-level labor model is attractive to both franchisees and their employees, too. Because the majority of the bakery items are prepared in the morning, kitchens are able to close early, and back-of-house employees have a work/life balance that can be very appealing, especially to those with children or families who are interested in being available in the afternoons and evenings.

For franchise owners, Paris Baguette’s mentorship and support creates an environment that allows them to be intimately involved in their bakery cafés and communities while still maintaining an attractive work-life balance and building a life they love.

The Financial Strength of the Model

Paris Baguette has seen continued sales growth, allowing franchisees to not only survive but thrive over the course of the pandemic and its aftershocks. In the food service space, this is an especially impressive feat.

Mele explained that this success can be attributed to the brand’s strategy, which has served to keep it top of mind and accessible to long-time guests.

“The sales are impressive, but what’s happening is that guest count continues to grow for this brand,” he explained. “If you read restaurant publications, some brands are reporting an increase in average sales, but when you unpack that a little, you see that they’ve also raised prices. It appears that they’re exploding, but much of that increase has been manufactured.”

“We haven’t raised prices,” he continued. “Our guest count is up, which is really telling. We have a great offering, and people are flocking to it.”

Paris Baguette Continues Its Expansion in Canada

“It’s the right brand at the right time,” said Mele.

Though some franchisors look to Canada with hope but choose to leave the majority of the growth efforts to their investors, Paris Baguette has made a clear commitment to growing alongside its franchise owners. With this, the team is demonstrating its confidence and establishing its name in the market, an effort that will increase brand recognition and support the success of all individual locations. With these “corporate seeds,” as Mele calls them, Paris Baguette has carefully laid plans to drive expansion in a way very similar to the one that led to explosive growth in the U.S.

“We did the same thing in the U.S. for years and again, recently, in the U.S. to really energize the growth of the flagship markets around the country,” Mele explained. “We just mirrored that. 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.”

With a growing gap in the bakery café market, Paris Baguette is capitalizing on a prime opportunity to backfill a huge void in Canada and beyond, and its careful strategy is already paying off.

ABOUT PARIS BAGUETTE: Paris Baguette is a bakery café franchise with more than 4,000 units across the globe. The global brand first franchised in the U.S. in 2015 and has since established nearly 150 locations in markets across the country, making it one of the premier franchise opportunities in its category. Paris Baguette’s primary mission, executed every day by its expert staff of bakers, cakers and baristas, is to share moments of joy with guests and help guests share moments of joy with their friends and family by providing world-class cakes, pastries, coffees, breads and other French-inspired bakery café fare. To find out more information on costs to buy this franchise, please visit https://ownaparisbaguette.com

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