Japanese retailer Muji has expanded its proposition with the launch of the minimalistic Café&Meal coffee shop in Singapore.

The new Café&Meal Muji in the retailer’s store in the Paragon shopping centre in Singapore shows how a brand can take what makes it recognisable and apply it to a different idea.

With wooden furniture in two hues, flooring that mirrors what is done in the rest of the store and a communal feel thanks to shared tables, this is as on-brand as it gets.

But why has Muji been so slow in making this part of its store formula? ‘When in doubt, add a cafe’ has become a default response for many retailers when trying to work out what to do with excess space, but in Muji’s case, which has homewares as its bedrock, this perhaps should have been introduced an age ago.

Nonetheless this cafe, and others in the four countries that Muji has installed them, show what is possible with a little thought and some surplus selling space. This is brand extension at its best.