Korean bakery that wants to make croissants less French

Go to the cellar of any busy mall in Singapore, and most likely you will smell the sweet, oily bakery.

Long lines of people Raid on counters of Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and Singapore bakers – pallets and tongues in the hands, after collecting cream buns and milk bread or filled croissants and fruit baking from crowded cabinets.

For the Paris baguette, its inspiration is clearly in the title, the outlets are also decorated with the colors of the tricolor, the sign shows Eiffel -Tower, and the atmosphere seems to strive for something close to the charm of the Paris cafe.

But it is 100% Korean.

“I wouldn’t limit our bread from France. We are an international brand,” says Gin Su Hur, President and Executive Director of the SPC Group owned by Paris Bagett.

“Like croissants, you could say it is a European product? I would say it is a versatile product.”

SPC traces its roots back into a small family bakery shop that opened 80 years ago.

Now it is a key player in the mass production of bread and baking in South Korea, which employs 20,000 people in all his brands. Last year, SPC notes that its sales reached $ 5.6 billion (£ 4.26 billion).

In 1988, Paris Bagett was born, becoming the first Korean brand that opened an international shop in China, which remains a big market.

Today it has 4,000 shops in 14 countries, including in Asia, Europe and the USA.

Paris Bagett has big plans to expand abroad by setting a goal with more than 1000 new branches at the international level by 2030 – many of them in the US.

This is an investment in a Texas factory, which will become its largest overseas production facility when it ended in 2027, supplying the United States, Canada and Latin America.

For Mr. Huri, maintaining the US market is a priority because it will mean that Paris baguette has succeeded internationally.

The sport is the main place in the Paris strategy through a partnership with the Football Club of the English Prime Minister “Tottenham Hotspur”.

Within two seasons, he had a similar deal with France Paris Saint -Geerman, providing fans of his baked products and desserts on home matches.

“I think food is a culture. Sport brings a lot of people to the stadium, and there are always good vibrations in London,” Mr. Hur said.

The captain of the South Korean national team was also captain of Sporov. Hen-Min son led his team to win the Europa League last month, graduating from the 17-year club waiting.

It is not about Korean leading spurs for Mr. Hura.

Tottenham – “Top Club and Paris Baguette, also want to be the best in the class,” he says.

Workers do not like to wake up early to knead the dough by hand, Mr. Hur says gently.

It attributes the system of its frozen dough to the franchise worldwide for improving efficiency and expansion.

Asia has a strong heritage of bakery products, but with rapid urbanization and change in lifestyle demand for comfortable food is constantly growing.

Pecs all over the region are already offering a huge variety of subjects.

Staples such as Au Chocolat’s pain and sandwiches, but they are also known as Asian aromas will be a pandan, durian, salty egg, red beans or croissants and baking matches.

Paris Baghet reacts to demand through the plant certified in Malaysia to put customers in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Experts around the world say that Asian bakers may be able to see even greater success for Asian bakers.

Korean and Japanese culture is so popular all over the world now that they may see things on the screen, and then they are ready to try it, ”said Savuria Busat, confectionery and bakery boss at the Culinary Institute of America in Singapore.

“I just came back from a trip to Italy, and I was very surprised to see a lot of Asian bakers and confectionery in Italy, and I was very happy.

To see the locals, the Italian people, that they have been studied. “

But can the frozen dough produce the same quality of goods as the artisanal bakery?

I put the boss -chapter the bead to the blind dough to taste. He sets out a croissant cooked with frozen dough (though he does not know it), examining her elasticity and sniffing it.

“It’s pretty bad. There is no honeycomb inside, it is completely hollow. The lamination has no force because the inner part is collapsing. No butter profile. It’s glue -and no.” He says to me.

Busap’s chef acknowledges that it is not practically looking for artisanal standards if you are massively producing bakery products, and therefore big players will have to rely on frozen dough.

What about traditional Asian baked goods? The boss is a furrow of Korean dairy bread, a fluffy white bread filled with cream, said he believes that he would be good in Europe.

“It’s fantastic. It’s very good. The smell of milk is nice. It’s fluff. It’s refreshing … It reminds me of a snack when I was younger that I brought to school.”

The crisis of life is the main problem for the Paris baguette, not recently because of the inflation level in the US as it seeks to move to the US market. Many companies have to change their business because it is not profitable for them, says Mr. Her.

One of the largest competitors in Paris baguette worldwide-Pret a Manger-must have been experimenting with subscription services and expanding the lunch options after Covid pushed the sandwich and a water network, and it was forced to close dozens of outlets and cut more than 3,000 jobs.

The global economic environment also weighs Mr. Hura, but he insists on profits, not his only goal. “If we are just trying to profit, we will just stay in Korea,” he says.

“We want to change the bread culture around the world. I want to find a way to continue opening a lot of bakers. It’s good for my country and good for people.”