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Paradis still chasing the American Dream following difficult start
TheCopenhagenPost
April 14th, 2015
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This article is more than 9 years old.
Ice cream chain misjudged Los Angeles market conditions
The popular Danish ice cream chain Paradis, which is owned by a group of 18 Danish investment heavyweights under the umbrella of the investment fund Executive Capital, has cut its losses stateside, Børsen reports.
Executive Capital began its American adventure in late 2013 with three stores in Los Angeles and a goal of opening 20-25 more over the course of two years. But one and a half years later, the count has actually shrunk to just two of the original stores.
Wrong locations
John-Ole Hansen, the chair of the Paradis Group and a partner at Executive Capital, told Børsen the failure was the result of some bad decisions.
“We missed the mark,” he said. “We had an enormous amount of interest in starting up over there and got two shops going, but we chose the wrong locations for them. We hadn’t adjusted our Danish view of what makes for a good location for a Paradis business.”
The fund has reassessed its plan for Los Angeles and now hopes to have 20 stores in the city by 2016. Four locations are already being prepared for opening and are awaiting final local government approval.
Hansen explains that the market in the City of Angels is very different from other places. “You can have an area where there is a good traffic-flow of people during the day, but almost dead in the evening.”
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