SPC Group, the operator of South Korea’s largest bakery chain Paris Baguette as well as Paris Croissant, SPL, Dunkin and SPC GFS, is building a $160 million bakery plant in Texas – the company’s first production facility in North America.
SPC said in a statement that it recently acquired a 150,000-square-meter factory site at Highpoint Business Park in Burleson, Johnson County, and received approval from the local governments for its investment plan and state subsidies.
A ceremony to confirm US incentives, the final procedure for the project, was held at the Johnson County Courthouse on Jan. 27, attended by SPC Group President Heo Jin-soo and Diana Miller, executive director of the Johnson County Economic Development Commission.
Heo, SPC Group’s overseas business chief, and his father and group Chairman Heo Young-in, visited the US last month to attend the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., where they met with key US political and business leaders to discuss economic cooperation and investment plans.
“With the second Trump administration taking off, we are accelerating this project in response to the rapidly changing global market environment, tariff policies and US industrial strategies,” said an SPC official.
Heo Jin-soo has spearheaded the group’s overseas business expansions, including taking the Paris Baguette brand to the US, Europe and Southeast Asia.
PLANT CONSTRUCTION BY LATE 2027
SPC Group said Texas is a strategic location for the company as the state offers easy access to major cities across the US, Canada and Central America.
Burleson, part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, provides a favorable employment environment, the Korean company said.
SPC said it plans to spend $160 million on building the Texas factory, with construction set to begin this summer and completion targeted for late 2027.
Local governments in Johnson County and Burleson have pledged a combined $10 million in subsidies, while Texas is slated to offer tax benefits for SPC’s factory equipment purchases.
SPC’s Paris Baguette is expected to receive up to $14 million in total incentives, the company said.
SPC’s Texas facility will serve as its production base for bakery products supplied to Paris Baguette locations across the US and Canada as well as future expansion into Latin America.
Initially, the size of the plant will be about 17,000 square meters before expanding to 28,000 square meters by 2030 for an annual production capacity of 500 million bakery products.
The factory is also expected to create around 450 jobs, ranking it among the top five employers in Burleson, SPC said.
AGGRESSIVE US EXPANSION
With this factory, SPC said Paris Baguette’s North American business will gain momentum.
The bakery brand, which operates more than 210 outlets in North America, aims to raise the number of its stores to 1,000 there by 2030.
This year, Paris Baguette plans to expand its business coverage to 35 states from 29 by opening 100 new outlets.
Paris Baguette consistently ranks among the Top 50 in leading US media franchise evaluations. Recently, Paris Baguette ranked 42nd on the 2025 Franchise 500 list compiled by Entrepreneur, a US business magazine.
SPC Group said the facility in Texas will have a training center for local franchisees.
The group is also considering leveraging the facility as a strategic base for SPC Samlip Corp.’s business expansion in the North American market.
SPC Samlip, the flagship unit of the group, has been leading the exports of popular Korean food products such as Hoppang (steamed buns), cream buns and Yakgwa, or traditional Korean honey cookies, to North America.
GLOBAL PRESENCE
SPC made its foray into the global market by opening up a Paris Baguette outlet in Shanghai in 2004.
The bakery group entered the Southeast Asian market in 2012 with an outlet in Vietnam. It is currently present in several markets, including Singapore, Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Globally, SPC Group operates more than 450 Paris Baguette and Shake Shack outlets in six countries. In 2018, the group obtained the rights to operate the American burger chain Shake Shack’s shops in Singapore and Korea.
The company operates a bakery plant in Tianjin, China, and is set to complete its second overseas plant in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
By In-Soo Nam
isnam@hankyung.com
Jennifer Nicholson-Breen edited this article.
