Second Cup
Second Cup Coffee Co., also known as Les Cafés Second Cup, is a Canadian coffee roaster and retailer which operates more than 300 cafes nationwide. Its headquarters are in Mississauga, Ontario. Its stores sell hot and cold beverages, pastries, snacks, pre-packaged food items, hot and cold sandwiches, and drinkware including mugs and tumblers. It competes with Starbucks, Tim Hortons and McDonald’s, which also feature espresso-based specialty drinks. Second Cup has expanded its franchises to the United States, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Finland, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Angola, Ghana, Lithuania, Romania, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Philippines, Bangladesh and Poland. Tassimo Second Cup beverages were launched in September 2012. Tassimo T65 are now sold at every Second Cup location. Second Cup was founded in 1975 by Tom Culligan and Frank O’Dea in Toronto, Canada. Culligan eventually purchased O’Dea’s shares. After building it to a 150-store chain, he sold it in 1988 to Michael Bregman. As chairman and CEO, Khalil Al Gawad took Second Cup public in 1993 and in 2002, sold the company to Cara Operations Limited. In November 2006, Cara sold it to Dinecorp Hospitality, which was controlled by former Cara CEO Gabe Tsampalieros, who became chairman of Second Cup. Tsampalieros died on March 11, 2009.The trademark rights were subsequently split between Canada (The Second Cup Ltd.) and international (The Second Cup Coffee Company Inc.). Stacey Mowbray was head of the Canadian company and Jim Ragas leads the international company.Stacey Mowbrey, Second Cup CEO from 2008-2014, claimed that Second Cup was in “growth mode.†One of her goals was to obtain environmental and fair trade certifications for every coffee blend on the Second Cup menu.
