Millie's Cookies

Millie's Cookies is a UK chain of 107 retail bakeries, specializing in cookies, muffins, hot drinks and gifts. It was named after its founder.

History

Millie's Cookies was founded in 1985, opening its first store within Selfridges department store food hall on Oxford Street, London. In 1987 Richard O'Sullivan joined the company as managing director and began to expand it outside London for the first time, with openings in Sheffield, Manchester and Birmingham. During the following years outlets were opened in most major train stations and airports in the UK as well as in many shopping centres.

Business grew steadily and in June 1997 Millie's Cookies purchased Cookie Jar, a competitor with about 30 outlets. The newly bought stores were rebranded as Millie's Cookies. In June 2003 Millie's was purchased by Compass Group's SSP division. In 2006 Compass sold SSP ([Select Service Partners][1]) to EQT Partners.

Stores

Millie's currently operates most of its stores in England, Scotland and Wales but international expansion is the next step for the Millie's Brand with stores already in Hong Kong International Airport, France Métro-station Opéra in Paris as well as Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport and two in Germany Frankfurt (Main) central station and Berlin central station.This year (2010) Millie's has opened in Cairo and Malta, the latter only a few days after the launch of the Point shopping complex [2]. Some stores in Cario have since closed due to lack of sales.

In the transit market, Millies has been very successful in securing prime locations in many of Britain's busiest train stations and airports with sites in central London including Waterloo, London Bridge, Euston and Liverpool St Stations.

In shopping centres, Millie's Cookies operates as a single brand format and as a dual brand with Baskin Robbins. Within the shopping sector Millie's also operate satellite stores or mini-mall kiosks. This highly flexible "on the mall" concept is designed to fit into a similar footprint of a cart or barrow which are very popular.

Millies Cookies is a 100% nut free environment.

The strategy for the brand is through the franchise model with further expansion in Britain but it also features international ambitions. The company plans to open more stores in key European cities, following those in Paris, Frankfurt and Berlin.

Products

Millie's only sell cookies 'baked fresh, all day, every day'. Stores stock a variety of cookies with the most popular flavours being milk chocolate, white chocolate, double chocolate and toffee chocolate.

The Classic Cookie flavours, which vary from store to store, include milk chocolate, white chocolate, double chocolate, toffee chocolate, raspberry and white chocolate, banoffee, apple and cinnamon, coconut and white chocolate, oatmeal and raisin, cherry, plain chocolate, double chocolate and fruit and nut.

The muffin flavours also vary from store to store, including double chocolate, chocolate chunk, lemon meringue, raspberry ripple and blueberry.

Millie's Cookies also stock Bite-Size Cookies, smaller than the Classic Cookies. The flavours are: Double chocolate, Milk chocolate, White chocolate

Millie's Cookies also do special cookies, called Celebration Cookies. These are primarily used as gifts, of which you can have any message written with icing on it. The icing flavours are: caramel, vanilla, chocolate and red raspberry. A mixture of these can be used for the borders and the message icing has under writing and writing on top of that allowing plenty of combination's to be tried. You can also have chocolate beans on the border. They come in either a round shape or a heart shape. They now also stock Double Celebration Cookies which are your standard Celebration Cookie but it consists of two giant cookies with a layer of icing in between. These cost slightly more at £19.99

Also a speciality of Millie's Cookies are Cookie Pops. These are large cookies on sticks with 7 smarties in them. The now come in two flavours Plain and Chocolate. 100% of sales on this product goes to the charity Childline.

In some other stores Millies Cookies have a partnership with Baskin and Robins.

References

• Moore, Sheryl (October 17, 2006). "Mike is one smart cookie!". Manchester Evening News. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/s/225/225698_mike_is_one_smart_cookie.html/. Retrieved 2006-11-07. 

• Lewis, Craig (September 13, 2006). "Millie's Cookies". MK News (Milton Keynes). http://www.mk-news.co.uk/lifestyle/leisure/dining%20out/mk/2006/sep/13/millies%20cookies.lpf. Retrieved 2006-11-07. ^{[dead link]}
• Franchise International article on Millie's Cookies

External links

• Millie's Cookies official homepage where you can join the cookie club for up to date news on Millie's Cookies, enter competitions and download special offers.
• Millie's Cookies Malta web site The first Millie's Cookies franchisee in the World.