Economy

Juan Valdez coffee plans to conquer Peru with 12 new stores

by Charlie de Rivaz

Colombia’s most famous coffee brand Juan Valdez hopes to open 12 stores in Peru by the end of 2013.

In a statement released Friday by the National Federation of Colombian Coffee-growers (FNC), Juan Valdez parent company Procafecol says that it wants to add to the eight stores it already has in Peru.

“Juan Valdez Coffee wants to transform itself into a major player in the market by the end of its first year in Peru and continue increasing its presence year by year,” said Hernan Mendez Bages, President of Procafecol.

The most recent addition to Juan Valdez’s Peruvian project was a store in the country’s second city, colonial Arequipa, which opened last week. Bages said that soon there will be a café in the Inca capital of Cuzco.

The FNC statement specified that as well as drinking coffee made from “the best coffee beans in the Colombian mountains,” customers will be able to choose from a food menu including traditional Colombian arepas, the “Peruvian Triple” – a sandwich containing a layer of avocado, one of egg mayonnaise, and another of sliced tomates – and the Spanish dessert of “Tocino de Cielo” (Flying Pig), a kind of flan.

Juan Valdez has 238 stores, 170 of which are in Colombia. The others are in the United States, Mexico, Aruca, Panama, Ecuador, Chile, Spain and Peru. The chain will celebrate its 10th birthday in December.

The coffee chain hopes to conquer the world, with a plan to open 60 stores in the Middle East inside 5 years, as well as others in South Korea, Singapore and Brunei.

Sources