Paris Baguette Offers World-Class Support and Training to Growing Group of Franchisees

Paris Baguette, a growing bakery café franchise with 4,000 stores worldwide, has always found innovative ways to help franchisees thrive, whether it be solving labor issues or keeping costs down for real estate. Now, as the brand looks to open 1,000 U.S. units over the next 10 years, that robust support infrastructure and training program is a major differentiating factor separating the concept from other franchise opportunities.

Josh Allen, Director of Training and Development for Paris Baguette, says new franchisees are provided with in-depth support and training from the very start of the onboarding process to long after their grand opening. 

“During the beginning phase, we offer all new franchisees access to a webinar where they can come in for our ‘Fresh Baked’ series,” said Allen. “Once they are newly signed into the franchise family, they get to hear from all of our department heads and learn about all of our support systems, whether it be site selection, new store development, permit expeditors, project managers, etc.” 

To start the process, Allen says each new Paris Baguette franchisee is paired with a New Store Development Manager, who will be available for weekly calls throughout the entire onboarding. “We want to make sure lessons are taught early so we can provide franchisees with a deep understanding of what will be required for opening the business from day one,” he said. 

Director of New Store Development and creator of the Fresh Baked series, Brian Egan, said “It’s all about the support that we offer to new franchisees. The development department supports the franchisee from the first day they sign their franchise agreement to the day they open their new café.” The Fresh Baked series is designed to keep the franchisee on-track throughout the process and gives them access to 24-7 support.  “This is one of the main reasons franchisees  look to get involved with a franchise system, it’s all about the support,” he said. 

In terms of site selection, store design and construction, Paris Baguette works with a real estate group to help franchisees identify critical street corners, analyze market demographics and more. There is also a brand design team that helps each owner optimize the flow of their individual site.

According to Allen, once incoming franchisees have a plan in place the Paris Baguette team takes the training process very seriously. “We want to make sure that the first location is a hub for training for other future locations,” he said. “Our goal is to ensure that the core team is the best of the best when they leave our system.” 

New Paris Baguette franchisees start the training program 16 weeks prior to their opening and are assigned to a Senior Regional Training Manager. “The owners will come to the brand’s main facility for three weeks to learn the ins and outs of the product and then spend six weeks in one of the certified training cafés,” said Allen. “We want franchisees to learn experientially what it means to run one of these cafés.”

During training, franchisees will also learn about staffing, recruitment and retainment. “The right recruitment strategy might be using an online platform or partnering with a local culinary school,” said Allen. “We work with the franchisee to ensure they are finding the right people and staying on timeline.”

This staffing support is also essential in today’s challenging labor market, Allen says. “The best thing any employer can do when facing a challenging market is to advertise the specific benefits of the opportunity,” he said. “Our franchisees can set their own policies around HR decisions and employee benefits as they are in charge of their independent team.”

When a new café is getting ready to open, Allen says, franchisees will be assigned to a District Production Manager and a District Manager, who are both charged with maintaining production levels, quality standards and operating standards. “Franchisees will be supported by back-of-house specialists who come from the baking side and can step in to elevate production levels, do quality assurance checks and solve challenges,” he said. “On the other side, we have business consultants for franchisees who really serve to help make operational improvements and ensure the business is running as well as it possibly can.”

Paris Baguette franchisees can also be confident they will be receiving ongoing support when it comes to product development, logistics and distribution.

“Our research and development process is extremely robust and is driven by what our guests want when they come into a Paris Baguette,” said Allen. “When we roll out a new core menu item or LTOs to our franchise partners, it has gone through a series of field tests to eliminate as many potential roadblocks as possible. We also provide the training materials needed to create all those products, including videos, product guides, recipe manuals. The same thing can be said for supply chain management — we start thinking about a new product hitting the market so far in advance and build relationships with vendors so that each franchisee can maintain good consistency, price and ROI.” 

Marketing is also a major piece of the Paris Baguette support infrastructure, Allen says. “We work with a marketing organization that helps us target each region we are opening in,” he said. “That can be anything from a Spotify ad to a billboard to a direct mailer. We also maintain constant communication with franchisees in order to adapt our marketing and better meet their needs. For example, we’ve learned that paid social media has been a major boon for our brand lately. Our goal is to help franchisees make a mark in the community and increase brand awareness for their store.”

But support doesn’t stop once the doors are open. “After the actual grand opening, franchisees will receive 10 days of very hands-on support,” said Allen. “We send a New Store Opening team to each location to teach them all about the front-of-house, as well as look for ways to adapt the operations for that specific site. The team helps open and close the restaurant each day to make sure all standards are in place before the training wheels come off.”

From there, Paris Baguette franchisees will benefit from being part of a supportive and collaborative franchise system for the entire duration of their business. 

“We have regular, scheduled visits to cafés for quality control,” said Mark Mele, Chief Development Officer for Paris Baguette. “These audits help us ensure that guests are perceiving us the way we want and that our mission of bringing joy back to the community through a neighborhood bakery café is being met. Additionally, we offer regular training inside the bakery cafés as well as outside the bakery cafés at our HQ, or a regional Paris Baguette facility. We also have annual business meetings to support our franchisees. We have a franchise advisory council that is there to support our franchisees. Lastly, local and regional marketing funds are provided to help franchisees share the concept with potential customers.”

With such a supportive business model in place, it is no wonder Paris Baguette continues to attract the attention of savvy investors all across the country. Last year, the brand signed a whopping 121 new territories in the U.S. Now, with its goal of opening 1,000 units by the year 2030, the time has never been better to join Paris Baguette. 

The total investment to franchise with Paris Baguette ranges from $528,270 and $1,638,554, including a $50,000 franchise fee. For more information, please visit: https://parisbaguette.com/franchising/