Paris Baguette: a French-inspired, South Korean-born, North American Success Story
An interview with Paris Baguette North America Chief Development Officer Nick Scaccio about the brand’s successful business franchise model, product innovation and scaling up strategy.
By Sharmila Rajah
There’s a race at Paris Baguette North America to power cities and provinces across the United States (U.S.) and Canada with their presence — the quintessential neighborhood bakery cafe.
Paris Baguette — which debuted in the U.S. in 2005 and rolled out its first franchised unit ten years later — has turned in remarkable performances. At the close of the second quarter of 2025, Paris Baguette had opened 225 stores in North America, with a goal of reaching 1000 U.S. cafes and 100 Canadian locations by 2030.
So far this year, there have been 135 new franchise signings, 42 lease signings, and 34 new cafés opened. The first quarter of 2025 marked the company’s 17th consecutive quarter of positive growth. Paris Baguette North America is targeting new markets such as Connecticut, Missouri, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Indiana, Idaho, Delaware, and Puerto Rico. To support its expansion plans and reinforce the company’s supply chain, the company is set to break ground this summer on its 260,000-square-foot state-of-the-art bakery manufacturing plant in Texas — the franchise’s first production site in North America. In May this year, the brand reached one million reward scheme members in the U.S. — a milestone that reflects growing brand loyalty.
Spearheading the brand’s ambitious growth programme is newly promoted Chief Development Officer Nick Scaccio. Scaccio joined Paris Baguette North America in 2020 in a strategy capacity, working closely with innovation and research and development (R&D) teams, and later transitioned to operations for several years, culminating with his role as Chief Operating Officer. Now, Scaccio oversees growth, construction, real estate, and franchise sales groups.
What has been the core focus and positioning for Paris Baguette North America?
We maintain a great sense of pride in our mission, vision and brand values, which are spreading joy, rising to the occasion, having heart, and nourishing the community. These are at the forefront of our expansion. We are actively looking to reestablish the neighborhood bakery cafe as the heart of the community around the world. And that vision is at the core of what we are doing now.
What has been driving the success of Paris Baguette in North America?
It always starts with the people — the right leadership team. Beginning with the incredible vision of our CEO, Darren Tipton, who has brought a wealth of experience to set a path forward for our organization. Our leadership team has been together for several years now across each of our departments. I believe everyone on our leadership team brings something special to the table in terms of their vision and disciplines from marketing, supply chain, operations and development, to human resources, and IT. This year, we will close over 250 new deals and open around 100 cafes. It’s an incredibly exciting time for Paris Baguette in our journey in the U.S. and Canada.
What are the components at play to enable such substantial expansion plans?
The people on all verticals within the franchise organization — our team members, our leadership team, our franchise operators, the owners in the field — who enable this. It’s all about the right people who share the same vision and who can execute with the same momentum to bring this brand to life in so many cities, states and provinces across North America.
Product quality and the overall product line are a daily and consistent focus of ours. Innovation is a big part of our brand DNA. We have quarterly updates, seasonal LTOs, and over 13 different cake holidays that we celebrate with new, innovative cakes. Our croissants are hugely popular, and so is our strawberry soft cream cake. Cakes — made by our cakers on-site every day — are a big part of our business. Our donut line, with assorted toppings, flavours, varieties and fillings, does unbelievably well.
From there, it’s a matter of executing from a design perspective — our cafes have a very specific look and feel. We recently implemented new design elements, from our penny-tiled floors to our cake rooms, which are guest-facing. Guests can now watch our expert cakers craft cakes in beautiful cake rooms with expansive windows. Families and kids can partake in the action — it almost feels experiential. There are also these beautiful center islands, the centerpieces of our cafes, where guests can peruse our products from a 360-degree perspective. It’s been termed the Disneyland of bakeries. Guest experience is extremely important to us.
How, as a global brand that started predominantly in Asian-based markets, have you successfully broken into the mainstream market in North America?
It’s an interesting history that has culminated in explosive growth. We are French-inspired, South Korean-born and rapidly expanding in North America. It’s an incredible story of evolution. The brand has gone from focusing specifically and predominantly on Asian-centric markets and products to opening up our horizons to extend to all markets and having a comprehensive product line. We have done so by partnering with Lavazza for our coffee program, and by becoming incredibly inclusive as a brand, which has opened up our opportunities in various cities and states in the U.S. and many provinces across Canada.
How important is product innovation for Paris Baguette to stay relevant and to meet and adapt to evolving taste preferences in the different markets across North America?
The North American arm of our organization operates in the U.S., Canada and out to Hawaii. We will be in Guam and Puerto Rico over the next year and a half. Our menu needs to be eclectic for sure — we’re always considering what our guests’ desires are. We have our staple core items like our croissants and our pain aux raisins, and more specialty items such as our mochi donuts, strawberry lemon croissants and whole red bean bread. How eclectic our menu speaks to how inclusive and diverse a brand we are.
And on the innovation side, we are quick to innovate. We have quite a bit happening in the R&D phase in terms of new categories. Croissant innovation has been top of mind. We recently also launched a Dubai chocolate line, which is extremely popular in the market. Our marketing and innovation teams identified that, and it is out in cafes now.