Good Morning Wolf Pack,

Today's newsletter highlights Paris Baguette, a French-inspired bakery cafe franchise that turns freshly baked bread and pastries into a 2x-plus return on investment.

Enjoy!

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FRANCHISE OF THE WEEK

Paris Baguette

Fast Facts

Background

• HQ: Moonachie, NJ

• Founded in 1988 (Korea), franchising in the U.S. since 2015

• Paris Baguette is a French-inspired bakery cafe franchise offering freshly baked breads, pastries, cakes, coffee, and sandwiches, with an in-store bakery experience that differentiates it from standard fast-casual competitors.

Location Trends

Franchise Fees

• Royalty: 5% of gross sales

• Marketing Fee: 3% of gross sales

• Franchise Fee: $50,000

Financial Overview

• The below table discloses information on franchised Paris Baguette locations that were open and operating for the full 2024 calendar year.

The Wolf's Take

Paris Baguette doesn't look like a typical franchise play on the surface, but the numbers are hard to ignore, in my opinion.

You're looking at a U.S. location count still under 200, an average unit volume pushing close to $2.9M, and an investment midpoint around $1.3M.

That's a 2x-plus ratio that most food concepts can't get close to.

The model works because it's a full bakery experience with fresh product baked in-house, and that drives ticket size and repeat visits in a way most competitors can't replicate, so it’s a completely different vibe than a coffee shop.

All that to say, it's an operationally demanding business.

Bakers start between midnight and 3 a.m., and the product quality standards are high.

The brand is tackling the production complexity through a new Texas manufacturing facility coming in 2027, which should help.

If you can handle the operations side, the unit economics here are worth taking seriously.

Resources

• Paris Baguette Franchise Development Site

• Paris Baguette wants to be America's neighborhood bakery — Restaurant Business

SMB TWEET OF THE WEEK

The Least Successful - Justin Welsh

Justin Welsh highlights something here that I’ve always believed to be a core reason for why some people are perpetually unhappy, and that boils down to the overconsumption of other people's lives.

It’s difficult to work on your own ideas when you are fully consumed in everyone else's.

WOLF BITES

• SpaceX stock has now started to fall 📉

• World Cup visitors are going viral for discovering Buc-ee's, Waffle House, and free soda refills 🌍

• The slowtech revolution is here to kill your phone addiction 🧐

• Reading ability spikes at a Minneapolis school after teacher bans tech in classroom 📚

• Google's new $100 Home Speaker with built-in Gemini AI is now open for preorder 🔊

• UN food agencies warn acute hunger will worsen in 13 hot spots as famine risks rise 😮

• Lionel Messi creates more history with Argentina after fabulous hat-trick ⚽

That’s it for this edition of The Wolf Report. Feel free to reply with any questions or feedback. Thanks and see you next week!

— The Wolf