Sales of major coffee franchises operating in South Korea moved up 20 percent in 2012 from a year earlier, while their operating profits dropped due to the rising competition, data showed Friday.

The combined sales of the country’s six major coffeehouse chains came to 893.7 billion won ($791.2 million), compared to 743.2 billion won tallied a year earlier, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service.

Starbucks Coffee Korea Co. posted the largest gain, with its sales advancing 31.1 percent to reach 391 billion won, trailed by South Korean brand Caffe Bene with 210 billion won, up 25.5 percent from a year earlier.

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Korea saw its sales edge up 3.1 percent to 137.9 billion won over the cited period in the local market, followed by Hollys Coffee with 65.8 billion won, up 14 percent from 2011.

Tom N Toms and Coffine Gurunaru chains saw their sales move up 4 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively, to reach 64.9 billion won and 23.2 billion won.

Meanwhile, coffee franchises in South Korea saw their operating profits decline in 2012 from a year earlier due to the rising competition in the local market.

Caffe Bene and Tom N Toms chains saw their operating profits plunge 40.2 percent and 11.1 percent, respectively, to reach 10.1 billion won and 6.4 billion won last year.

Coffee Bean’s operating profit also fell 51.4 percent to 5.2 billion won in South Korea, and the company posted a net loss of 1.4 billion won last year.

Starbucks and Hollys Coffee chains’ operating profits edged up 6.9 percent and 22.4 percent, respectively, over the cited period to reach 24.8 billion won and 7.1 billion won, the data also said. (Yonhap News)