Inside Fore Coffee’s expansion strategy
Published on October 6, 2026
A group of customers outside a Fore Coffee outlet in Indonesia.
Indonesia’s coffee chains are expanding at pace, but for Fore Coffee, growth is increasingly a question of where to deploy capital rather than how quickly it can add outlets.
Fore has grown to more than 360 outlets across Indonesia and Singapore since its launch in 2018. As its footprint expands, the company is using a combination of market data, existing-store performance, local assessment and store-level payback periods to determine where it opens next.
The strategy is playing out in Southeast Asia’s largest modern coffee market. Indonesia’s modern coffee sector reached US$1.04 billion in GMV in 2025, according to research from Momentum Works. For Fore, capturing that opportunity starts at the individual store level.
Underwriting new stores
Fore assesses prospective locations using indicators including traffic flow, population density, demographic profiles, nearby public facilities and site visibility.
It also considers the performance of existing stores in the surrounding area before opening additional locations. Each city has its own performance targets, while payback periods are assessed at the store level.
“Data plays a major role in this process,” said Fahmi Rachmattulah, Director of Corporate Strategy and Development at Fore Coffee. “When determining expansion locations, we place strong emphasis on several indicators, such as traffic flow, population density, demographic profiles, public facilities surrounding the location, as well as the strategic positioning of a site that can affect the visibility of a potential Fore store.”
The data is then tested on the ground.
Fore involves the operational team that will eventually manage the store in assessing prospective locations alongside its Business Development team. The process includes direct observation, gathering information from the surrounding area and conducting an independent assessment of the location’s potential.
The approach adds another layer of validation before capital is committed. Even within the same city, differences in traffic, visibility and local demand can affect the potential of individual locations.
As the network grows, the challenge is therefore not simply identifying markets with demand, but maintaining a repeatable process for selecting individual locations that can meet the company’s performance thresholds.
A broad consumer opportunity
Indonesia’s consumer base provides a supportive backdrop for that expansion.
Household consumption expenditure grew 5.06% year on year in the second quarter of 2026, according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS).
Affordability is also part of the equation. Fore operates in what it describes as the premium-affordable segment, positioning its products between mass-market offerings and higher-priced alternatives.
As Fore expands across Indonesia, maintaining that balance becomes more challenging. Expanding nationally is not simply a matter of replicating the same store across different cities; local demand, pricing and site economics need to support the investment.
Funding the next stage of growth
Fore’s approach to financing expansion has also evolved.
Before going public, the company used a partnership scheme under which partners provided capital while Fore developed and operated the stores, with revenue shared between the two parties.
Following its April 2025 IPO, Fore raised more than IDR353 billion, giving the company greater capacity to finance expansion directly. Net proceeds of more than IDR337 billion were earmarked for new Fore Coffee and Fore Donut outlets and working capital.
The company has since stopped offering the partnership scheme for store expansion and continues to operate its outlets directly rather than through franchises.
Direct ownership gives Fore greater control over store operations, product quality and customer experience across the network. It also means that decisions around where and when to open stores carry greater weight in how the company deploys capital.
IPO proceeds are expected to support the development of up to 140 additional Fore Coffee outlets and 30 Fore Donut outlets.
Expansion and store productivity
Fore’s recent financial performance provides an early indication of how the expanding network is translating through the business.
Revenue reached IDR1 trillion in the first half of 2026, up 52% year on year, while EBITDA increased 65% to IDR216 billion. EBITDA margin rose to 21.5% from 19.7% a year earlier, while the group’s active store count increased 44% to 377.
The relationship between those figures is worth watching.
More than 40 new Fore Coffee outlets were added in Indonesia during the first half, with over 40% located in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. At the same time, higher sales volumes helped spread fixed store-level costs across a larger revenue base, supporting the improvement in margins.
That makes the performance of new stores an important part of the expansion story. Adding locations can grow the top line, but the broader test is whether Fore can continue expanding its network while maintaining store productivity and profitability.
Each additional store brings another decision around location, expected payback and capital deployment, while a larger network raises the importance of maintaining consistency across operations.
For Fore, the next stage of growth will therefore be shaped not only by how many stores it opens, but by the economics of each new location and the company’s ability to repeat that model as it scales.
