The group, which was founded in Portstewart, in County Londonderry, in 2013 has invested £250,000 to transform a former restaurant unit on Church Street in Cookstown into a new store for its latest opening.
Bob & Berts currently operates 15 stores across Northern Ireland in locations such as Belfast, Lisburn, Omagh and Dungannon, five stores in Scotland, including Falkirk, Kirkcaldy and Stirling, and three in England in Lancaster, Kendal and Preston.
The company intends to open between eight and 10 new cafes this year, with a particular focus on England, where it says its recent openings have performed ahead of expectations. Its fourth store in the north of England will open in Bury, Manchester, at the end of April, with a sixth Scottish store set to open in Perth in May.
“We are really delighted to be opening in Cookstown and to be bringing our simple commitment to serving customers proper coffee and great grub to customers in one of Northern Ireland’s most vibrant market towns. We carefully select each of our coffee shop locations and we’re confident the people of Cookstown will love what we have to offer at Bob & Berts,” says founder Colin McClean.
“The strength of our brand and confidence in it is reflected in the fact that the business has successfully opened four new stores during the Covid-19 pandemic, all of which have performed better than our original forecasts.”