CJ Foodville shifts to black in Indonesia, Vietnam

Customers shop for bakery products at CJ Foodville's Tous Les Jours cafe in Jakarta, Sept. 19, 2022. Courtesy of CJ Foodville

By Kim Jae-heun

CJ Foodville, the food service subsidiary of CJ Group, has started generating profits in Indonesia and Vietnam amid growing consumer demand for Korean-style bakery products there, company officials said Wednesday.

The company has successfully positioned its bakery chain Tous Les Jours as a premium shop in both countries by offering products baked daily at the stores. Most bakery chains in Indonesia and Vietnam only sell mass-produced bread or buns.

It also made its baked goods more visually appealing and expanded its online-to-offline (O2O) link service to target the countries, which both have large populations of young people.

“We first entered the Vietnamese and Indonesian markets in 2007 and 2011, respectively. Back then, there were barely any successful cases of Korean franchise firms trading surplus. The turning point was when our Tous Les Jours business in the United States went into the black five years ago and that experience has helped us to do the same in Indonesia and Vietnam,” a CJ Foodville official said. “We expect to continue our surplus this year and expand our franchise business in Vietnam and Indonesia.”

In 2021, CJ Foodville's Indonesian operation had its all-time highest gains with the highest operating profit ratio among all the company's overseas firms. Its sales soared about 71 percent, year-on-year, and the operating profit skyrocketed nearly 740 percent in the same period.

CJ Foodville is currently operating 51 Tous Les Jours stores in Indonesia, in major cities including the capital Jakarta, Defok, Bogor, Surabaya and Bali.

The company's growth in Vietnam is also striking. It runs 38 Tous Les Jours stores across the country.

In 2022, CJ Foodville's Vietnam business sales increased year-on-year by about 71 percent. It's operating profit jumped by about 310 percent in the same period.

Tous Les Jours is leading Vietnam's premium bakery market by introducing unique products and services that hadn't been offered there before.

CJ Foodville has created a new type of business called a cafe-type bakery in Vietnam and attracted a great response from local customers. It is also offering a free valet parking service for bicycles and motorcycles, which are a major form of transportation in the country, and a membership rewards program.