Beard Papa’s plans to puff up Asia presence

Japan’s Beard Papa’s chain of cream-puff shops is expanding with a target of 150 outlets before year’s end in Asia beyond its home market.

Run by Muginoho Holdings, the brand is known for adding fillings to its freshly baked choux pastries in front of customers, as well as its trademark, a bearded fellow in a woolly cap.

Most of the planned locations will be managed as franchises, which are already proving efficient for the brand.

One example is the Beard Papa’s inside Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, which has monthly sales totalling about ¥10 million (US$90,400).

A store at Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport has been almost matching the chain’s top performers since it opened on July 14.

The linchpin of the regional business is a plant in Singapore set up in 2014 as Muginoho’s second production base.