Thailand’s Café Amazon has launched in Saudi Arabia, opening its first store in the region at Riyadh’s InterHealth Hospital.
PTT Oil and Retail Business (PPTOR), which operates the Café Amazon coffee shop chain, said it is targeting expansion to 150 stores in Saudi Arabia by 2032.
Marking the opening of the Riyadh store, Jiraphon Kawswat, CEO of PPTOR, highlighted the potential of the retail market in Saudi Arabia, especially the growth of premium coffee outlets which she noted as being driven by increasing consumer demands.
Project Café Middle East 2019 forecast Saudi Arabia to be the fastest growing market in the Middle East (9.6%), exceeding 2,600 outlets by 2023.
In October 2021, PPTOR said it plans grow its Café Amazon coffee chain to 1,000 international stores by 2025, a downgraded target from an earlier goal to reach 5,800 stores globally by 2025.
Founded in 2002, Café Amazon is Thailand’s largest branded coffee chain. The company currently operates more than 4,000 stores across Thailand, Cambodia, China, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Oman, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.
PTTOR said that the Café Amazon launch in Saudi Arabia represented the ‘first step to concretely restore diplomatic and trade relations’ between Thailand and Saudi Arabia. Political, economic and trade cooperation was agreed between the two nations in January 2022.