Paris Baguette Franchise Cost & Fees (US and Korea)

Paris Baguette at a Glance

Paris Baguette is the flagship bakery-cafe brand of South Korea's SPC Group. Founded in Seoul in 1988 and franchising from the start, it pairs French-inspired breads, pastries, and cakes with coffee in a self-serve cafe format. The system counts roughly 4,400 stores, about 700 of them outside Korea across 16 countries ^[3], and opened its 700th international store in London in December 2025 ^[4]. North America is the brand's stated growth priority — the company is targeting 1,000 US units by 2030 ^[4] — so for most prospective international franchisees, the US Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) is the cost reference that matters most.

US Franchise Costs and Fees

The figures below are drawn from Paris Baguette's US FDD as summarized by Vetted Biz (2024 basis) ^[1].

Cost item	Amount	Notes
Initial franchise fee	$50,000 [1]	One-time, paid to the franchisor
Total initial investment (low)	$727,440 [1]	FDD Item 7 estimate
Total initial investment (high)	$1,825,100 [1]	FDD Item 7 estimate
Liquid capital requirement	$200,000 [1]	Minimum cash on hand
Royalty	5% [1]	Of monthly gross sales
Marketing fee	2% [1]	Of gross sales, system fund

Points worth noting when weighing this against other bakery-cafe options:

• The investment range is wide — from $727,440 ^[1] to $1,825,100 ^[1]. Bakery-cafes are buildout- and equipment-intensive compared with counter-service snack concepts: ovens, refrigerated display cases, and larger dine-in footprints all sit inside the initial investment. Where you land in the range depends chiefly on square footage, location type, and local construction costs.
• Ongoing fees are percentage-of-sales: a 5% ^[1] royalty plus a 2% ^[1] marketing contribution, both calculated on gross sales rather than profit.
• The $200,000 ^[1] liquid capital requirement is the minimum available cash the franchisor looks for; total funding needs are governed by the Item 7 range above.

Costs in South Korea (for Reference)

The franchisor's own Korean opening-costs page, based on its 2025 filing in the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) disclosure system, lists startup costs for a standard 30-pyeong (about 99 m²) store ^[2]:

• Total startup cost: KRW 221,500,000 ^[2] to KRW 277,600,000 ^[2] (ex-VAT)
• Opening fee: KRW 10,000,000 ^[2]

These Korean figures exclude the property itself — lease deposit, key money, and rent come on top — so they are not directly comparable to the US Item 7 range, which is built on different inclusions and market conditions.

What the Figures Do and Don't Cover

• US Item 7 estimates typically bundle buildout, equipment, signage, opening inventory, training-related travel, and a defined period of working capital, but the exact line items and assumptions change with each FDD issue. Read Item 7 of the current document rather than relying on summaries.
• The Korean disclosure figures are explicitly ex-VAT and exclude real-estate costs ^[2].
• Percentage fees are payable on sales regardless of store-level profitability, which matters when budgeting for a high-buildout format like a bakery-cafe.
• Currency exposure is real for international applicants: the US and Korean figures are disclosed in different currencies, under different regulatory regimes, and for different store formats. Neither converts cleanly into the other.

How to Verify

Franchise costs change with every new disclosure cycle. Before making any decision, request Paris Baguette's current US FDD directly from the franchisor and confirm each figure in Items 5 through 7 (fees and initial investment); for Korea, pull the brand's latest 정보공개서 (information disclosure document) from the KFTC franchise disclosure system. The numbers in this guide reflect the 2024 US FDD summary ^[1] and the franchisor's 2025 Korean filing ^[2] and may have been superseded — the franchisor's current disclosure document is the only figure source that counts.