Swire operates the Qinyuan Bakery, or Q Bakery, chain.
Swire Pacific will nearly double the retail footprint of its bakery business by 2020, according to the South China Morning Post.
The newspaper reported that Swire Foods would open new stores in the cities of Chongqing, Chengdu and Guiyang – in south-central China – taking its total number of bakeries up to 1,000. That would make the company one of the largest bakery chains in China, the Morning Post added.
The investment will expand the reach of Qinyuan Bakery, the retail chain in southwest China owned by Swire Foods. It currently has more than 500 stores in the three cities, which are 300 miles from each other, and benefitted from a new factory in Chongqing that started operations in May.
Swire Pacific is better known as the primary Coca-Cola bottler in Hong Kong, Taiwan and much of mainland China.
The new bakeries will help Swire Foods to increase its penetration in the region, with consumers dependent on local bakeries.
“People only buy pastries at nearby shops so we expand the number of outlets to increase market share,” said Steven Yuen, chief executive officer of Chongqing New Qinyuan Bakery, was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post.
“Bakery is a very fragmented market in China,” added Swire Foods managing director Max Lau. “We have not yet seen any player dominating the market [so] there are big opportunities there.”
As well as increasing the number of outlets available to consumers, Swire Foods will introduce new branded bakery chains including Bakerland and Moment. The move will bring cities like Chongqing, which has an estimated urban population of more than 30 million, in line with other regions like Taiwan where there is a greater availability of coffee and bakery chains.
It will also accompany the expansion of Mövenpick coffee, which Swire intends to bring into its bakery stores.
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