Food Presence in Mongolia
CJ Foodville announced on November 15 that Tous les Jours has opened two stores in Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia, one by one within 15 days. This is the first achievement after the company signed a master franchise (MF) contract with a Mongolian company in May. It is meaningful in that it is the first local bakery to establish a shop in Mongolia.
With the opening of the two stores, Tous les Jours has secured a bridgehead to introduce a Korean brand in the Mongolian market in where local brands dominate and become a global brand in Central Asia. The bakery's two Mongolian stores have opened in a core business district in Ulan Bator. The first store is located at the center of the streets lined with fancy restaurants and pubs. A CJ Foodville spokesman said, “It was 23 degrees below zero on the opening day, but we had more than 2,000 customers and generated over 10 million won (US$8,562) in sales. We could feel welcome.”
The second store has opened on the first floor of the Shangri-La Mall next to the Shangri-La Hotel which hosted the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in July. It attracted twice the number of customers it expected on the opening day. As the store is located at the mall linked to the five-star hotel in Ulan Bator, Tous les Jours will be able to raise its status as a premium bakery.
Tous les Jours, which has the largest number of stores in other countries among domestic bakery brands, conducts business with the most successful and efficient ways through a MF contract, in which a company hands over control of the franchising activities in the country to a local business partner and receive a percentage of revenue and royalty from its partner. Tous les Jours has its first franchising business in the United States in 2009. In China, the company directly manages stores in large cities while letting its Chinese partners open outlets in 11 provincial areas and districts under the MF contract. In Cambodia, the Philippines and Malaysia, Tous les Jours stores were also set up under the MF, with those in Vietnam and Indonesia directly operated by CJ Foodville.
As of November 15, CJ Foodville operates 270 Tous les Jours stores in eight countries – China, the U.S., Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Mongolia.