Brioche Dorée
France
EU
Brioche Dorée is a French bakery-café chain founded in 1976 in Brest by Louis Le Duff, the president of the Le Duff Group. It belongs to Groupe Le Duff, which is headquartered...
European Bakery & Café Chains
Costa Coffee
United Kingdom
Non-European Parent Company
Costa Coffee is a British coffee shop chain. The Italian brothers Bruno and Sergio Costa founded it in London in 1971. According to The Coca-Cola Company, Costa is one of the UK's...
Ditsch
Germany
EU
Non-European Parent Company
Ditsch is a German pretzel bakery chain. Master baker Wilhelm Ditsch founded it in Mainz in 1919, near the railway station, and his son Heinz Ditsch developed it further. Ditsch sells its...
Greggs
United Kingdom
Greggs is a British bakery and food-on-the-go chain headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne. John Gregg founded the business in 1939, and the first shop opened on Gosforth High Street in 1951. Greggs...
JOE & THE JUICE
Denmark
EU
Non-European Parent Company
JOE & THE JUICE is a Danish juice bar and coffee chain founded in Copenhagen in 2002 and headquartered there. It sells freshly prepared juices, shakes, coffee and sandwiches, made with natural...
Kamps
Germany
EU
Kamps is a German bakery chain with its head office in Schwalmtal in the Lower Rhine region. The first Kamps bakery opened in 1982 on Friedrichstraße in Düsseldorf. The company calls itself...
PAUL
France
EU
PAUL is a French bakery-café chain with its head office in Marcq-en-Barœul near Lille. The brand traces its roots to 1889, when Charlemagne Mayot took over a small bakery in Croix near...
Pret a Manger
United Kingdom
Pret a Manger is a popular British sandwich and coffee shop chain known for its fresh, organic food and coffee offerings. Founded in 1983, it has established a significant presence across the...
Did we miss one? Feel free to submit a suggestion!
Submit SuggestionBakery and café chains sell fresh baked goods, sandwiches and coffee in many locations at once, often at stations, in shopping centres and on high streets. This page lists chains with their headquarters in Europe. Some of the best-known coffee brands now belong to non-European owners, and they are marked on their product pages.
European bakery and café chains at a glance
| Chain | Country | Presence (company data) | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greggs | United Kingdom | 2,796 shops (26 Sep 2026) | listed company |
| PAUL | France | 750 or more bakeries in over 45 countries | Holder family |
| Ditsch | Germany | more than 170 shops in DE and AT | Valora, owned by FEMSA (Mexico), flagged |
| Kamps | Germany | around 340 locations | Argos (Europe), formerly Le Duff |
| Brioche Dorée | France | more than 300 cafés worldwide | Groupe Le Duff |
| Pret a Manger | United Kingdom | sandwich and coffee shops | see its own page |
| Costa Coffee | United Kingdom | more than 30 countries (2019) | Coca-Cola (USA), flagged |
| JOE & THE JUICE | Denmark | more than 360 stores, 18 countries (2023) | General Atlantic (USA), flagged |
Craft, franchise and coffee
The chains cover very different models. PAUL and Brioche Dorée are French café-bakeries that sell in many countries, with large shares of franchise operation. Kamps is a German chain whose shops are about 98 percent franchised, and Ditsch focuses on pretzels. Greggs runs its own manufacturing network, and 639 of its shops are franchised. Costa and JOE & THE JUICE are closer to coffee and juice bars.
Ownership notes
Ditsch belongs to Valora, which FEMSA of Mexico acquired in 2022. Costa Coffee has belonged to The Coca-Cola Company since 2019. General Atlantic, a US investor, controls JOE & THE JUICE as majority shareholder. Kamps changed hands in 2026 when Argos agreed to buy it from the Le Duff Group.
What is missing
US coffee chains such as Starbucks have their headquarters outside Europe and are not listed. Independent local bakeries are not part of this page. Craft bakeries cannot be compared by size, and this directory lists only chains that are widely known in their country or abroad.