Award-winning Canadian coffee franchise debuts in Manchester: An award-winning Canadian coffee franchise, Second Cup, is making its UK debut in Manchester’s Arndale centre tomorrow (28 October). The franchise, known for selling Fairtrade Rainforest Alliance Certified coffees and Artisan leaf teas, uses labour-intensive hand-picked cherry beans to make sure only the best make it to the coffee cup. It has 345 sites in Canada and franchised operations in 15 countries. There will be capacity for 65 at the Manchester site, which is located next to Pizza Hut on Corporation Street. Jim Ragas, president of Second Cup International, said: “Second Cup cafés are designed to be a second home – there’s plenty of space with plenty of varied seating for relaxation or work. Our cafés are designed to make everyone feel at home. Whether they are students, business people, families, or customers just wanting to relax and have a drink or hungry for great food – Second Cup is their place. Second Cup knows Mancunians are rightly proud of their great city. And when we were looking for a city to open our first UK branch in we could see why. It’s got great music, great football teams, great style – and now it’s got great coffee too.” Masood Akbarzai, Manchester’s franchise partner, said: “We designed the interior with plenty of wide spaces broken into several smaller, more intimate groupings, to provide the atmosphere of a traditional but much brighter coffee house. The natural light is uplifting and a stimulus to creativity, especially for those who are there to work.” In the coffee roasting process, Second Cup uses batch roasting, which is when small batches of 100-200kg of seeds are placed in individual roasters. This method ensures higher quality control compared to other methods such as continuous roasting. Earlier this year, the Canadian operation reduced its head office count to streamline decision-making and add back around $14,000 of profitability to each franchised store.

Artisan bakery Paul to make regional debut in Oxford in December: French artisan bakery and patisserie Paul is opening its first shop outside of London as the initial stage of a brand roll-out that will see a further five openings in 2015. The bakery in Oxford, opening on Monday 8 December, will take the brand’s total number of UK sites up to 31 and will create 20 new jobs when it opens on the high street. Jean-Michel Orieux, chief executive of Paul UK, said: “Oxford is the ideal location for our first bakery outside of London as we believe it has a wonderful balance of cultural heritage, a well established local community and vibrant economic and tourism activity which can clearly embrace the growth of our business. We think that Paul will be a great addition to the busy High Street and that the people of the area will enjoy our exclusive range of traditional, hand-crafted bakery and fine patisserie products.”