Caffe Bene plans NY expansion

Stories about American-based coffee chains expanding into new territories are nothing new. It seems every other day that the likes of Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and Costa Coffee et al. are opening up a new premise in some new location.

But a South Korean chain is planning to muscle in on the hotly contest New York coffee scene.

Caffe Bene is aiming to open up four stores in New York and a further on in Jersey City. They are also in discussions with major shopping centres in Bergen County.

Whilst the menu may be similar to countless other coffeehouses the idea is to position it as a truly social environment and treat space as valuable real-estate.

“We try to be the opposite of Starbucks,” Min Hong, a franchise development manager with Caffe Bene, told NJ.com.

If everything goes to plan, the company hope to see a further round of openings later on in the year.

The Korean coffee shop may never be able to rival the green mermaid but they have grown very quickly since they were established in 2008.

Their main stronghold, rather predictably, is in Asia with South Korea, China, Japan, Singapore and even Mongolia housing a Caffe Bene coffee shop.

In recent years they have taken tentative first steps into the United States, opening a small number of stores in key strategic locations such as their flagship outlet in Times Square.

Moving forwards, they will be allowing their franchisees to have a hands-on approach when it comes to picking locations.

The company get a lot of exposure in South Korea through prominent displays carefully placed in dramas and other television shows and the company are planning to do something similar in America.