Singapore Billionaire Ron Sim’s Bacha Coffee Opens Paris Outlet In Global Push

Bacha Coffee has opened its flagship outlet in Paris as the luxury cafe chain backed by Singaporean billionaire Ron Sim’s V3 Group accelerates its global expansion.

The 1,500-square-meter outlet will be Bacha Coffee’s biggest outlet. Bacha Coffee invested €20 million ($23 million) in the 100-seat, the three-storey shop along Champs Elysee shopping strip in the French capital.

“Europe is a cornerstone of our global expansion strategy,” Taha Bouqdib, president and CEO of Bacha Coffee, said in a statement. “The opening of our coffee house in Paris represents a major milestone and demonstrates our commitment to offering an unrivalled coffee experience, honouring our rich heritage while embracing the future.”

Bouqdib—Sim’s French-Moroccan business partner—secured the global franchise of Bacha Coffee from Moroccan National Foundation of Museums and opened its first overseas store in 2019 in the upscale Ion shopping mall on Orchard Road. After earmarking $100 million three years ago to bankroll the global expansion of Bacha Coffee, Sim said in an interview with Forbes Asia last year that he is confident the chain will generate enough cashflow to fund expansion plans.

Bacha Coffee—the legendary coffee house founded in 1910 in Marrakech—has since expanded to 31 outlets across 12 major cities, including Dubai, Doha, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei. It’s on track to open 100 stores in all major capitals by 2030, Maranda Barnes, chief commercial officer of Bacha Coffee, said.

With a real-time net worth of $1.6 billion, Sim also has interests in real estate, health supplements and massage chairs under Osim, a business he started over four decades ago.