After 40 years in operation, a major Canadian coffee-shop franchise has opened its first British site in Manchester – Second Cup, which has 500 cafes worldwide, is now in the Arndale Centre in a 2500 square feet outlet over two levels that seats 64.
The Cafe space is broken into several smaller, more intimate groupings, including a ‘library’ area complete with an electric fireplace, and books, newspapers and magazines – and free wi’fi.
The varied menu includes a selection of coffee blends, espresso-based beverages, premium teas, iced drinks, signature local foods, all natural frozen yogurt and indulgent treats.
The Manchester franchise partner is Masood Akbarzai, of Akbarzai Business Associates, and Second Cup looks set to offer some new products and tastes to the UK coffee shop sector (see below).
Working with strong, committed local partners – and great food
The president of the Canadian operation, Jim Regas, commented:
“We are extremely excited to be coming to Britain with our brand and feel we compete well with all the UK brands as we already compete with them in several countries. The UK coffee brands all do a great job but we felt there was an opening a strong franchised coffee café to enter the market as they – the UK brands are almost all corporate locations.
“Our strengths are based on working with strong committed local partners that know and are a part of their communities. Our offering also has a wider breadth than most of our competitors and we always emphasize great trained staff to make people feel at home…. And then there’s our coffees, teas, frozen yogurts, hot and frozen hot chocolates – great, and I mean great, food options and spectacular treats… I may be a bit biased!
“We have adapted our food offering for British tastes – and even more so we will make sure to adopt it for each region we open to accommodate specific taste profiles. All our food items are sourced from here in the UK and are always fresh.”
Coffee range
“The Flat White has been part of our international beverage offering now for 4 years and has proven to be very successful…my personal favourite (is) the Caramel Coretto which is our version of the best Caramel flavoured Latte – you must try it. Being Canadian we have always been proud of our Commonwealth roots and the London Fog has been a stable item for the past 30 years at Second Cup cafes.
“Our Maple white hot chocolate and all our hot chocolates both hot and frozen are all made with different amounts and types of chocolate – white, milk and dark chocolate to ensure that the flavours are always authentic.
Roasting on demand
“All our coffees throughout the world are carefully roasted at our roasting facility in Toronto Canada and are only roasted in small batches and shipped to order. We never roast and “shelve” the coffee waiting for regions to order them, we roast on demand. We are proud that we know every farm that grows the handpicked coffee beans that we use in all our coffees which are Rainforest Alliance Certified.
“We are likewise proud of our premium artisan whole leaf teas that our master team blender has over 30 years and took us over 18 months to perfect.”
Second Cup, Manchester Arndale, 15A Corporation Street, Manchester M4 3AJ
