What Coffee Bean is brewing for North, SE Asia

[SINGAPORE] The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is looking to double its store count in the next five years, with a focus on emerging markets in North Asia and South-east Asia.

"The growth is going to be on two platforms - company-owned stores in Southern California where our business is based and the other is really to grow North Asia specifically, but also continue our growth in the South-east Asian markets," said Mel Elias, president and chief executive of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. It currently has over 600 stores in Asia, with roughly a third of them in South Korea.

Established in California in 1963, the privately-held chain has nearly 1,000 stores worldwide with annual sales of over US$500 million. About 300 of those stores are owned by the company while the balance 700 are franchised.