TORONTO, Feb. 26 /CNW/ - Second Cup, the iconic Canadian-owned
coffee
company, founded in Toronto in 1975, has been preparing for an
increasing
presence in the global market. The growing franchise chain today
announced
that its 400th Café opened for business in Istanbul, Turkey on
January 26,
2008 and that the company intends to open more than 50 new cafés
globally this
year which will more than double its international presence and
achieve
overall growth of at least 10 per cent.
"The fact that this milestone location was opened in Istanbul,
is
emblematic of Second Cup's evolution and future direction," said
Gabriel
Tsampalieros, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Second
Cup Coffee
Company Inc., the owner of The Second Cup Ltd. (the Canadian
subsidiary) and
of the Second Cup brand globally. "Accelerated international
expansion is one
of the pillars we will build upon, to achieve our vision of Making
Second Cup
a Respected Global Brand."
In addition to the 366 Second Cup cafés in operation throughout
Canada
there are now 35 cafés in operation out-of-country, all of which
are located
in the Middle East. The first out-of-country café opened in Dubai
in 2003.
Since then cafés have been developed and are now serving guests in
Kuwait,
Oman, Lebanon, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar. In
2008, in
addition to Turkey, Bahrain, Jordan and Syria will be added to the
growing
list of countries offering the Second Cup experience.
"Although we started our international growth in the Middle East
as much
by happenstance as by design, the region does provide an excellent
demographic
for our brand, with a young, affluent, increasingly well educated
and
aspirational consumer ready to try new products and experiences,"
said Mark
Cunningham, Vice President, Operations & Development of the
company's
International Division. The strong family ethic, absence of, or
relatively low
consumption of alcohol and the natural sociability of the people,
make Second
Cup cafés a natural gathering and meeting place."
The greater emphasis on international expansion began when
Tsampalieros
bought Second Cup Ltd. from its former owner, Cara Operations
Limited,
(Canada's largest full service Restaurants) where Tsampalieros had
served as
President for two years and as President & Chief Executive Officer
for an
additional eight years.
Second Cup is the largest specialty coffee franchiser in Canada,
as such,
most of the Canadian cafés and all of the out of country cafés are
owned and
operated by licensees, which the company refers to as Franchise
Partners.
Second Cup believes that having strong local owners as Operators
is key
to delivering a better guest-experience. "We have been fortunate to
have
franchise partners both domestically and in the international
market, who
share our passion for the business and are fully aligned with the
vision of
Second Cup.
Our franchise partners are selected on the basis of business
acumen, passion for the business, local relationships and
entrepreneurial
spirit. We recognize fully, that knowledge of the market and
leveraging
existing relationships is as critical to the success of our brand
as are the
quality of our products and service," said Tsampalieros.
