Starbucks to open inaugural bakery cafe in South Korea

Starbucks will soon open its very first bakery cafe in South Korea, where the international brand currently has more than 1,400 stores.

As reported by koreabizwire.com, the new location will be opened in Yangpyeong County, Gyoniggi Province, and will feature a bar that serves the company’s tea brand, Teavana.

Previously, Starbucks had been outsourcing the production of its baked goods that it sells at all of its South Korean locations, but this new store will bake fresh bread on-site with dough from Shinsagae Food, the food manufacturing arm of South Korean retail corporation Shinsagae Group, which owns 50 per cent of the South Korean Starbucks franchise through subsidiary E-mart.

The opening of this new location is seen as an attempt to diversify within South Korea’s dense and competitive coffee market. In July 2019, there were 71,000 coffee shops in business across the country, with 14,000 located in Seoul alone, according to the Bangkok Post.

To date, Starbucks’ gradual introduction of new baked goods to its stores in South Korea has seen bakery sales increase by more than 20 per cent annually.