Food & Beverage

Paris Baguette Franchise

A Korean-founded bakery-cafe chain selling fresh-baked bread, pastries, cakes, and coffee alongside light cafe fare. Predecessor Paris Baguette USA, Inc. was formed in California in February 2005 and briefly franchised two Cafes in 2011-2012 before assigning those agreements to current franchisor Paris Baguette Family, Inc. (incorporated in Delaware in October 2014), which began offering new franchises in March 2015; the brand's IP is now held by Korea-based affiliate Paris Croissant Co., Ltd. Franchised unit count grew rapidly and accelerated across the FDD's three-year window, nearly tripling from 98 to 261 restaurants.

Opening more locationsFounded 2005HQ: Moonachie, NJ

Every franchisor has to file a document called an FDD before they can legally sell you a franchise. Buried in it are the two things a sales rep won't volunteer: what you'll actually spend to open, and whether existing locations are opening or closing. That's what's below, pulled straight from Paris Baguette's own filing.

What it costs to open

From the filing's investment breakdown -- not a "starting at" number a sales rep quoted you.

Franchise fee

$50,000

Total to open

$727,515–$1,860,550

Ongoing royalty

5% of gross sales

What you'd actually spend, over time

The upfront cost is only part of it. Plug in what you expect a location to bring in, and see the real total once royalties over a few years are added on top.

Your estimated annual revenue

Defaulted to a rough food & beverage industry average, not a figure from Paris Baguette's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.

Years of ownership

Total cost of ownership over 5 years

$977,515 – $2,110,550

Startup investment

$727,515–$1,860,550

Royalty per year (5%)

$50,000

Total royalty, 5yr

$250,000

When would you break even?

Revenue alone doesn't tell you this -- it depends on what's left after rent, labor, and everything else. Paris Baguette's FDD doesn't disclose a reliable profit figure (most franchisors don't), so this starts from a typical food & beverage profit margin (~8%) and applies it to the revenue you entered above -- adjust the percentage to your own realistic estimate.

Estimated profit margin (% of revenue)

%≈ $80,000/year

Defaulted to a general food & beverage industry benchmark, not a figure from Paris Baguette's own filing -- this is a starting point to adjust, not a promise about what franchisees actually make.

At that profit, you'd break even in about

9.1–23.3 years

Weigh that payback period against what you already know: Paris Baguette is opening more locations. A long payback period on a shrinking brand is a very different bet than the same payback period on a growing one.

Is Paris Baguette actually growing?

Franchisors have to report, every year, how many locations opened, closed, or changed hands. Most franchise sites never show you this. Here it is:

Locations opened vs. closed, by year

Growing

From Item 20 of Paris Baguette's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.

+39

+49

+75

202320242025

Year	Franchised units, start	Franchised units, end	Net change
2023	98	137	+39
2024	137	186	+49
2025	186	261	+75

Most recent year (2025): gained 75 franchised units, ending the year at 261 total.

What you're actually signing up for

The cost and growth numbers above are only part of the picture. These three FDD items are the ones a prospective franchisee tends to weigh most heavily once they're past the sticker price.

Training & ongoing support (Item 11)

Item 11: Franchisor helps with real estate selection, construction-drawing review, and a punch-list walk-through; Item 1 discloses IP is licensed down from Korea-based Paris Croissant Co., Ltd. through affiliate PBBD, which also manufactures and exports dough and bakery supplies to U.S. Cafes.

Territory protection (Item 12)

Item 12: no exclusive territory -- franchisees search within a non-exclusive Search Area, and a Protected Area (if any) is sized at Franchisor's sole discretion and is not guaranteed for every Cafe.

Renewal & termination terms (Item 17)

Item 17: 10-year term from the Opening Date (shorter if the Cafe's lease runs less than 10 years), with the right to two additional 5-year renewal terms.

How Paris Baguette compares to other Food & Beverage franchises

Across the 50 food & beverage franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $882,585–$2,162,912, with royalties averaging around 5.6% of gross sales (based on the 46 of them that charge a flat %-of-revenue royalty).

Dave's Hot Chicken

$617,800–$2,170,000 · 6% royalty

Slim Chickens

$1,188,900–$4,944,000 · 5% royalty

Ziggi's Coffee

$315,830–$2,093,361 · 6% royalty

Crumbl

$848,566–$1,472,533 · 8% royalty

Little Caesars

$376,500–$1,769,200 · 6% royalty

Jamba

$480,850–$941,300 · 6% royalty

Tropical Smoothie Cafe

$300,000–$720,500 · 6% royalty

Playa Bowls

$188,675–$636,458 · 6% royalty

Kona Ice

$114,730–$228,601 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Firehouse Subs

$166,671–$950,351 · 6% royalty

Wingstop

$310,400–$1,048,500 · 6% royalty

Jersey Mike's Subs

$436,176–$1,162,228 · 6.5% royalty

Dunkin'

$532,400–$1,832,500 · 5.9% royalty

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen

$1,222,045–$3,923,245 · 5% royalty

Del Taco

$1,461,200–$3,313,500 · 5% royalty

Blaze Pizza

$757,000–$1,297,100 · 5% royalty

Church's Texas Chicken

$1,202,400–$1,886,300 · 5% royalty

MOD Pizza

$924,732–$1,220,633 · 5% royalty

Twin Peaks

$2,959,000–$5,734,000 · 5% royalty

McDonald's

$1,470,500–$2,642,000 · 5% royalty

Subway

$263,000–$630,000 · 8% royalty

Taco Bell

$1,859,750–$4,312,200 · 5.5% royalty

Domino's Pizza

$231,450–$743,500 · 5.5% royalty

KFC

$2,107,575–$4,155,000 · 5% royalty

Burger King

$2,039,200–$4,730,600 · 4.5% royalty

Chick-fil-A

$317,521–$3,463,155 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Penn Station

$507,500–$858,750 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Nekter Juice Bar

$243,155–$647,160 · 6% royalty

Jimmy John's

$366,200–$733,500 · 6% royalty

Sonic Drive-In

$1,485,200–$2,522,900 · 5% royalty

Papa John's

$281,485–$890,267 · 5% royalty

Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs

$238,982–$697,322 · 5.5% royalty

Jack in the Box

$1,909,500–$4,041,500 · 5% royalty

Wendy's

$1,523,957–$2,992,000 · 4% royalty

Marco's Pizza

$286,477–$811,186 · 5.5% royalty

Pizza Hut

$846,000–$2,130,000 · 6% royalty

Chicken Salad Chick

$777,000–$998,500 · 5% royalty

Teriyaki Madness

$392,667–$1,121,405 · 6% royalty

Cold Stone Creamery

$390,675–$680,775 · 6% royalty

Scooter's Coffee

$1,163,650–$1,345,750 · 6% royalty

Nothing Bundt Cakes

$475,200–$994,100 · 6% royalty

Five Guys

$977,850–$1,375,750 · 6% royalty

Tim Hortons

$427,500–$3,312,500 · 6% royalty

7 Brew

$940,500–$2,283,500 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Swig

$608,400–$1,718,000 · 7% royalty

Culver's

$3,406,350–$10,294,100 · 4% royalty

Dairy Queen

$1,516,200–$2,543,050 · 4% royalty

Jollibee

$1,614,568–$4,589,057 · 5% royalty

Smoothie King

$329,850–$683,215 · 6% royalty

Keep going

Paris Baguette and Blaze Pizza are both food & beverage franchises; Paris Baguette's total investment starts about $29,485 lower than Blaze Pizza's. Blaze Pizza Franchise
Paris Baguette and Chicken Salad Chick are both food & beverage franchises; Paris Baguette's total investment starts about $49,485 lower than Chicken Salad Chick's. Chicken Salad Chick Franchise

Where this came from: MN CARDS file 9691, Clean FDD issued March 30, 2026, filed 6/1/2026, effective 6/1/2026. Paris Baguette Family, Inc. (California DFPI entity id 353580, legal name used here) also has a current CA registration (App ID APP00004654, a renewal effective 5/27/2026) not used for this draft. hqLocation is corrected from the FTC boilerplate Washington, DC address the automated parser picked up -- Item 1 gives the real principal business address as 137 West Commercial Avenue, Moonachie, NJ. Item 5: $50,000 initial franchise fee for a single Cafe. Item 6: royalty is 5% of weekly Gross Sales (reduced to 4% for the first 12 months for franchisees who open within 9 months of signing); Marketing Fund Fee is currently 2% of weekly Gross Sales, with a disclosed right to raise it to 3%. Item 7 single-Cafe Total: $727,515-$1,860,550 (a 4-Cafe area development package runs $777,515-$1,910,550, not used here). Item 20 Table No. 1 confirmed. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2026-06-01. None of this is investment advice -- get the franchisor's current FDD and talk to a real attorney or accountant before you sign anything.

If you see a different unit count elsewhere: franchisors only have to refile their FDD annually, so the numbers here can run 6–18 months behind a franchisor's own real-time marketing claims -- which often aren't independently verified, and sometimes count signed-but-not-yet-open locations. A gap isn't necessarily an error on either side; it's two different snapshots in time from two different sources.