Muffin Break, an Australian-owned brand of onsite bakery cafés, is expanding its footprint in Northern Ireland, with the opening of its second café in Belfast.
Located at the Lesley Forestside shopping centre, the opening of the new kiosk café has seen Muffin Break invest more than £150,000 in the new concept, with the creation of 12 full- and part-time jobs.
With a smaller footprint than traditional Muffin Break stores, and a focus on food-to-go, the kiosk concept is a first for the Foodco-owned Muffin Break brand in the UK.
Forestside was chosen as the first in the UK to trial this concept due to the significant footfall in the centre and the central location of the kiosk.
The new outlet is a sister business of Jamaica Blue, which has been successfully trading in Forestside for the past three years and it’s the third location for Muffin Break in Northern Ireland (it has stores in Castle Court and the Buttercrane shopping centre in Newry).
Michael Johnson, franchise development executive at FoodCo UK, said: “Over the past few years we’ve enjoyed a host of FoodCo openings in Northern Ireland with our franchised Jamaica Blue and Muffin Break (www.muffinbreak.co.uk) concepts.
“Muffin Break has been particularly well received in central Belfast thanks to our premium coffee offering and freshly baked goods, so, when the opportunity presented itself to trial a new, smaller footprint model of Muffin Break store in a shopping centre that we knew well, the time was right to open our third Muffin Break outlet in Northern Ireland.”
The first Muffin Break bakery café in the UK opened in 2001 and has now a footprint of 68 outlets nationwide.
Mr Johnson added: “FoodCo is a progressive hospitality franchise business with big ambitions, and we’re actively looking for new sites and franchise partners.
“Globally, we have 550 locations in eight counties, and we’re keen to grow in Northern Ireland with the right partners.”