What foreign franchise chains have become popular in the USA?
The first I can think of is the Tim Horton doughnut shops, expanding from Canada with now over 800 US outlets.
Jollibee is s Philippine ethnic chain, now in 36 US locations in ten states.
Oxxo, the Mexican convenience store chain, has begun opening outlets in the USA.
Aldi Supermarkets expanded from a German base.
IKEA, I think.
Cemex, a Mexican cement manufacturer. I think their logo was originally red-white-and-green, but they changed it to red-white-and-blue when they entered the U.S. market.
Sigma Alimentos, a Mexican food distributor, supplies a lot of grocery stores in the southwestern U.S. You see delivery trucks with the “Fud” brand (a bilingual pun) all over the place.
Beard Papa started in Japan, but now has a couple dozen locations in the US, and others elsewhere in the world.
Uwajimaya, a Japanese supermarket, in the PNW. Only 4 stores, but what wonderful stores.
the cement manufacturer is not a franchise chain.
that is the plain direct investment.
of course the Aldi case is also not a franchise chain case.
I was going to suggest Pret A Manger (British sandwich chain) and Nando’s (South African chicken restaurant) but don’t know if either has franchised stores in the US or if they’re corporate-owned.
Nando’s only franchises in South Africa and Australia.
As for the OP, I’ll add Pollo Campero.
Ben & Jerry’s. While the company was originally American, it was bought by the Dutch Unilever corporation in 2000.
If you’re counting Ben & Jerry’s, you should include Seven-Eleven, now owned by the Japanese spinoff.
In the opposite direction, the Lawson convenience store chain was once confined to the Cleveland area, and is now found only in Japan.
Just to complicate the picture: If I understand the corporate structure correctly, Tim Horton’s was essentially bought by Burger King and is now owned by a holding company that is in turn owned half by the Brazilian venture capital company that is the majority owner of BK, a little over a quarter by other BK shareholders, and the rest by former TH shareholders.
Citgo gas stations are franchises, and the company itself is Venezuelan state-owned.
Was there a Sicilian company called Cosa Nostra that opened a bunch of branches in the US?
“You’very got a friend in the family”.
yeah, but their customer service was brutal.
There’s a few Lawsons in Hawaii (solely to cater to the Japanese market though)
I lived on Yoshinoya Beef Bowl during college. The Daily Trojan had “Buy-One-Get-One-Free” coupons in them and we would all go down and get a couple and eat one for lunch, and the other for dinner.
From Japan, since 1899. Yoshinoya - Wikipedia
Same with Tower Records. Started in Sacramento, now only found in Japan.
And LUKOIL is a Russian company with franchises owned in the US.