Paris Baguette has grown to nearly 150 stores since in the U.S., with visions of reaching the 1,000-unit franchise mark in the country by 2030.
By Joshua Burd
It’s no small feat to wind up on Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500 ranking or the Franchise Times Top 400 list, but Paris Baguette has done exactly that with a global footprint of more than 4,000 units.
Joe and Patti AmecAngelo have seen that growth in real time, at least in recent years, serving as the brokers for the bakery concept’s expansion in North America. The company plans to secure dozens of locations annually over the next decade, they said, with visions of reaching 1,000 stores in the United States by 2030.
“They’re insatiable at this point,” said Joe AmecAngelo, a first vice president with CBRE’s New Jersey team, who was named Paris Baguette’s master broker in 2021.
“It is a very fruitful account on the one hand,” he added. “It’s also highly demanding and there’s a lot of learning about the brand and understanding the specifications, the commercial real estate criteria and ensuring that we have proper representation in every nook and cranny, because they are growing fast.”
The AmecAngelo team has filled its pipeline in recent years with national assignments for Paris Baguette and other fast-growing chains, displaying a broad reach from their office in East Brunswick. The brokers have closed more than 100 deals this year alone on behalf of clients they represent throughout the U.S. and in preferred markets, while they expect that momentum to continue amid sustained demand for food-, fitness- and service-based retail.
“I’ve seen all kinds of entertainment and experiential things going in and going out, but by and large, if you have a good platform and you are pushing a food or service business — and you do it well — you’re seeing those expand and expand exponentially,” Joe AmecAngelo said. “They’re moving fast. And people are craving more and more service-driven products and food especially.”
The husband and wife team, who estimate that roughly 90 percent of their deals take place outside New Jersey, currently represent nearly a dozen tenants that they say are in growth mode. Those concepts also include Voodoo Brewery, a chain based in northwest Pennsylvania, as well as Fit Body Boot Camp, AAMCO Transmissions & Total Car Care and The Goddard School, among others.
Naturally, those brands are focused on growing in places such as Florida, Texas and other booming markets where the AmecAngelos leverage relationships with local brokers from their own firm and elsewhere.
“I would say the hottest market that I see is Florida,” Patti AmecAngelo said, noting that the state attracts everything from food and beverage concepts to convenience stores.
That also means the AmecAngelos are “always on a plane” or booked with wall-to-wall video calls, she said. Aside from scouting locations, they’re often visiting clients and prospects at their headquarters or at a major corporate location in another state.
“Before you take on a concept (or begin) representing a franchise, I think it’s important that you get to know everyone involved and understand the model,” she said. “And that’s what we like to do.”
Make no mistake: Paris Baguette is currently the driving force of the AmecAngelos’ business. The French-inspired, fast-casual bakery concept, founded in 1988, already had thousands of stores in Asia, Europe and parts of the U.S. when it hired CBRE in 2021. Joe AmecAngelo said the company, undeterred by the COVID-19 pandemic, put itself in position to grow rapidly when the health crisis had passed.
Paris Baguette now has nearly 150 U.S. stores while staying nimble and “always refining the model,” AmecAngelo said, noting that the franchise initially sought locations between 1,500 and 2,500 square feet, but has since scaled up to stores of at least 3,000 square feet. He adds that the company has put up the capital to support its lofty ambitions — investing in new a West Coast headquarters in Southern California while eyeing a new dough plant in Dallas — all while staying consistent when it comes to presentation, food quality and staffing.
“They have the money behind them to do it, which is what a lot of other companies don’t have,” he said. “They just don’t have that kind of a goal. They’re not as focused, they don’t have the money, they’re not moving at the same pace.”
New Jersey is as central to that growth as any other market, the brokers said. Paris Baguette, whose U.S. headquarters is in Moonachie, has added more than a dozen locations in the state since tapping the AmecAngelo team in 2021, a total that’s on track to double by year-end.
“You go to a place that has good service and you’re going to see that people are gravitating to it,” Joe AmecAngelo said. “People want a good service base and good food options — and they’re everywhere.”
The AmecAngelos’ clients also include homegrown New Jersey businesses with their own growth potential. Joe AmecAngelo pointed to Juice House, a juice, smoothie and acai bowl concept that grew from a single store in Garwood in 2014 and has since expanded to New Providence, Union, Freehold and Montclair.
“That franchisor has done an excellent job of growing slowly within New Jersey, keeping the sites scheduled as far as the distance between each other,” he said. “They’re going be a growing brand and hopefully we’ll continue to work with them as they continue to scale and grow throughout New Jersey and beyond.”
