The number of coffee franchises in South Korea rose by more than 3,000 on-year in 2022 on rising demand for food and beverages 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 end-2022, up 13 percent from the previous year’s 23,204, according to the data from the Fair Trade Commission (FTC).

It marked the highest growth among all kinds of food and beverage franchises in 2022.

The overall number of food service franchises climbed 7.4 percent on-year to 179,923 in 2022, and restaurants serving Korean dishes accounted for the largest share of 22.2 percent, followed by franchise chicken restaurants with 16.35 percent and coffee stores 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) i
n 2022 after the country regained pre-pandemic normalcy, the FTC said.

In the service sector, the number of franchises rose 3 percent on-year to 104,134 in 2022.

Their average annual sales jumped 10.7 percent on-year to 178 million won, according to the data.

Source: Yonhap News Agency