Baked in Belfast: Muffin opens first bakery café in CastleCourt thanks to £200,000 investment, creating 15 jobs

Muffin Break, an Australian-owned brand of onsite bakery cafés, is expanding its footprint in Northern Ireland, with the opening of its first store in Belfast.Located in CastleCourt Shopping Centre, the opening of the new café, complete with scratch bakery, has seen Muffin Break invest £200,000 in the fit-out of the Belfast store, which has created 15 new jobs.The café will join Muffin Break’s other location in Buttercrane Shopping Centre, Newry which opened earlier this year. There are also plans to open additional bakery cafes with the business actively looking for new locations and franchisees across Northern Ireland.Renowned for its freshly baked goods, coffee and lunch options, Muffin Break is committed to providing the highest quality food and coffee, prepared fresh, in-store every day.Owned by the FoodCo Group, the first Muffin Break bakery café in the UK opened its doors in 2001 and has now a footprint of 65 outlets nationwide, including its two Northern Ireland locations.

Scott Nicholas, national operations manager of FoodCo UK, said: “We are thrilled to be opening our second Muffin Break Café in Northern Ireland in CastleCourt Shopping Centre, bringing premium coffee and fresh baked goods to Belfast.“The response from shoppers to our Newry café has been incredible and we’ve been working hard to find the perfect location in Belfast. Centrally located, with a corner unit on the ground floor, Muffin Break, CastleCourt, presents the ideal location for coffee lovers to relax and for shoppers to try one of our famous muffins and light bites from our breakfast and lunch menus.”Muffin Break’s new store in CastleCourt, Belfast, sets the stage for an exciting new chapter in FoodCo’s growth. In addition to this latest Muffin Break opening, last month, FoodCo opened its second Jamaica Blue café as part of its planned expansion in Northern Ireland.CastleCourt centre manager, Leona Barr, added: “As part of the ongoing programme of new store openings at CastleCourt this year, we are delighted to welcome Muffin Break to CastleCourt and to Belfast.“This quality brand complements our existing food and beverage line up and further enhances our mix of food, retail and leisure offer at the centre.”The bakery café is located at the Berry Street entrance to CastleCourt and will be available on Deliveroo in the near future.

Franchise opportunities are also available across Northern Ireland – for more information, please visit here.