Caffe Bene went from 945 stores to court rehabilitation in four years

Caffe Bene was founded in 2008 by Kim Sun-kwon and grew into South Korea's largest home-grown coffee franchise, with 945 stores across the country by 2014 and over 1,000 globally at its peak, including outlets in Japan, China, the United States and Southeast Asia. The chain was built on rapid store expansion, celebrity endorsements and a wide menu of coffee, waffles and bingsu (shaved ice).

The aggressive expansion came at a cost. By 2013, Caffe Bene's debt ratio stood at 665 percent; by 2015 it exceeded 1,400 percent. The company lost approximately US$32 million in 2016. An equity fund and foreign investors took control that year and repaid 70 billion won — 70 percent of the total debt — but the company continued to face financial shortages as South Korea's coffee market became saturated.

On January 12, 2018, Caffe Bene filed for court-led corporate rehabilitation with the Seoul Central District Court. The court approved the restructuring on January 25. At the time of filing, the chain had 643 stores in Korea — a drop of one-third from its peak. A 10-year repayment plan was approved in May 2018, converting 30 percent of the debt into shares and spreading the remaining 70 percent over a decade. The company exited receivership on October 11, 2018, after just nine months.

The founder's legal troubles continued. Kim Sun-kwon was later sentenced to three years in prison for defrauding investors of approximately 30 billion won in a nursing home construction project. Caffe Bene's China joint venture went bankrupt in 2023, and all Japanese stores had closed by 2018.