Coffee shops led franchise growth in 2022: FTC

Coffee cups stacked up at a Starbucks in Seoul in September 2022. [YONHAP]

The number of coffee franchises in Korea rose by more than 3,000 on year in 2022 as demand for food and beverages climbed after the COVID-19 pandemic and the expansion of budget brands, the antitrust regulator said Monday.

The country had 26,217 coffee franchise stores as of the end of 2022, up 13 percent from the previous year’s 23,204, according to the data from the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), the highest growth among all kinds of food and beverage franchises in 2022.

The overall number of food service franchises climbed 7.4 percent from a year earlier to 179,923 in 2022, and restaurants serving Korean dishes accounted for the largest share at 22.2 percent, followed by chicken franchises with 16.35 percent and coffee shops with 14.57 percent.

Ediya Coffee had the largest number of stores in 2022 with 3,005 shops, followed by Mega MGC Coffee with 2,156 and Compose Coffee with 1,901 stores.

The average sales per food franchise store went up 12.7 percent on year to 314 million won (US$232,146) in 2022 after the country regained pre-pandemic normalcy, the FTC said.

In the service sector, the number of franchises rose 3 percent from a year prior to 104,134 in 2022, with a jump in average annual sales of 10.7 percent to 178 million won, according to the data.

Yonhap