内容摘要："There is a real risk our debt becomes unsustainable this Parliament, unless we make tough choices about what the state does. We can't keep on muddling through."

"There is a real risk our debt becomes unsustainable this Parliament, unless we make tough choices about what the state does. We can't keep on muddling through."

SPC traces its roots back to a small family-owned bakery shop that opened 80 years ago.It is now a key player in mass producing bread and pastries in South Korea, employing 20,000 people across all its brands. SPC says its sales hit $5.6bn (£4.26bn) last year.

In 1988, Paris Baguette was born becoming the first Korean bakery brand to open an international store in China, which continues to be a big market.Today it has 4,000 stores across 14 countries including in Asia, Europe and the US.Paris Baguette has big overseas expansion plans, setting a target of more than 1,000 new branches internationally by 2030 – many of them in the US.

It's investing in a factory in Texas which will become its largest overseas production facility when it is completed in 2027, supplying the US, Canada and Latin America.For Mr Hur, capturing the American market is a priority because it would mean Paris Baguette has succeeded internationally.

Sport is central to Paris Baguette's strategy through a partnership with English Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur.

It had a similar deal with France's Paris St Germaine for two seasons, providing fans with its baked products and desserts on match days of home games.The cost-of-living crisis is a major challenge for Paris Baguette – not least because of the US inflation rate as it seeks to push into the American market. A lot of companies are having to change their business because it's not profitable for them, Mr Hur says.

One of Paris Baguette's biggest competitors globally – Pret A Manger – has had to experiment with subscription services and expand dine-in options after Covid pushed the sandwich and coffee chain into loss, and it was forced to close dozens of outlets and cut more than 3,000 jobs.The global economic environment weighs on Mr Hur too but he insists profit is not his only goal. "If we are only trying to make profit, we'll just stay in Korea," he says.

"We want to change the bread culture around the world. I want to find a way to keep opening up a lot of bakeries. It is good for my country, and good for people."Disney and Universal are suing artificial intelligence (AI) firm Midjourney over its image generator, which the Hollywood giants allege is a "bottomless pit of plagiarism".