Millie's Cookies
Encyclopedia
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
Selfridges
Selfridges, AKA Selfridges & Co, is a chain of high end department stores in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge. The flagship store in London's Oxford Street is the second largest shop in the UK and was opened on 15 March 1909.More recently, three other stores have been...

 department store food hall on Oxford Street
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, United Kingdom. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, as well as its most dense, and currently has approximately 300 shops. The street was formerly part of the London-Oxford road which began at Newgate,...

, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. 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 station
Train station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...

s 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
Compass Group
Compass Group plc is a global contract foodservice and support services company headquartered near London, United Kingdom. It is the largest contract foodservice company in the world and has operations in over 50 countries...

's SSP division. In 2006 Compass sold SSP ([Select Service Partners]http://www.foodtravelexperts.com/international/) 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
Hong Kong International Airport
Hong Kong International Airport is the main airport in Hong Kong. It is colloquially known as Chek Lap Kok Airport , being built on the island of Chek Lap Kok by land reclamation, and also to distinguish it from its predecessor, the closed Kai Tak Airport.The airport opened for commercial...

, France Métro-station Opéra
Opéra (Paris Metro)
Opéra is a station of the Paris Métro, named after the nearby Opera Garnier, built by the architect Charles Garnier. It is located at the end of the Avenue de l'Opera, one of the accesses being opposite the Opera, and serves the district of the Boulevard Haussmann...

 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 as well as Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport and two in Germany Frankfurt (Main) central station
Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof
is the central station for Frankfurt am Main. In terms of railway traffic, it is the busiest railway station in Germany. With about 350,000 passengers per day the station is the second most frequented railway station in Germany and one of the most frequented in Europe.- Proto-history :In the late...

 and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 central station
Berlin Hauptbahnhof
' , is the main railway station in Berlin, Germany. It began full operation two days after a ceremonial opening on 26 May 2006. It is located on the site of the historic Lehrter Bahnhof, and until it opened as a main line station, it was a stop on the Berlin S-Bahn suburban railway temporarily...

.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 http://www.milliescookies.com/franchise/.
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.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK