CJ Foodville Corp., a food service unit of South Korea’s conglomerate CJ Group, aims to up its overseas sales to more than half of its total revenue in four years in a move to become a global food company and challenge multinational names like McDonald’s or Starbucks.

“We will accelerate our global business expansion by increasing revenue gain from our foreign businesses to 52 percent by 2020 from 11 percent of last year,” CJ Foodville CEO Jung Moon-mok said in a press conference on Monday, adding the company will put efforts to further strengthen its brands Tous les Jours, Twosome Place, and Bibigo in the international market.

According to the latest plan, it aims to increase the number of its offshore food service outlets to 4,000 by 2020. It currently operates 288 outlets across the world, according to the company’s data as of June this year. Since CJ Foodville first made its advancement into overseas markets with its bakery chain Tous les Jours in 2004, it has started to introduce its coffee franchise Twosome Place in 2010 and restaurant chain VIPS in 2012 in 10 countries including China, the United States and Southeast Asian countries.

“In the long-term, we aim to vie against McDonald’s, Starbucks and Yum! Brands that owns Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC,” said Jung. The company still has a long way to go with its 2015 revenue of $1.12 billion still pitiful against the multination giants that reported revenue of between $13 billion and $25 billion.

But he claimed the company has a chance given its growth pace.

CJ Foodville’s bakery brand Tous les Jours is currently leading the franchise bakery sector in China and Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia and Vietnam, according to the company. The Korean food service firm plans to up the number of its bakery franchise shops in foreign countries to 1,600 by 2020 from current 236. To achieve the goal, it plans to build new bread factories in Guangzhou and other big cities across China this year. It currently runs production facilities in two cities in China - Beijing and Shanghai. It also aims to increase the number of its Twosome Place coffee shops to 1,150 from 22 throughout the world in four years and its flagship Korean style restaurant franchise Bibigo outlets to 300 stores from 16.

By Seo Jin-woo

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]