TORONTO, April 4, 2023 /CNW/ - Good Earth Coffeehouse (Good Earth) opens a new location in downtown Toronto at the corner of Yonge and Wellesley Street. This will be the first downtown Toronto location for this Canadian born coffee chain. The newest Good Earth Coffeehouse is just steps from the busy TTC Station at Wellesley ST East and will be a hub for thousands of people within the area providing a warm, inviting community gathering place to enjoy ethically sourced coffee and fresh, wholesome food.

Good Earth at Younge & Wellesley is proud to be joining the downtown Toronto Community. Tej Malli and Sunny Kumar, owners and operators for this location say, "We're very excited to bring Good Earth to the community of downtown Toronto and look forward to delivering our exceptional coffee and wholesome food to our new customers. We invite people to come in, take a comfortable seat and enjoy their coffee in a pleasant coffeehouse environment. Why drink your coffee anywhere else?"

Good Earth is passionate about creating the perfect cup of coffee. The company offers a selection of Rainforest Alliance Certified and Direct Trade coffees, roasted exclusively to their specifications. With an extensive menu crafted from wholesome ingredients and prepared daily in their kitchens, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and evening treats are served up with a down-to-earth attitude.

Good Earth is excited to host a grand opening event Thursday April 20th, the celebration includes free brewed coffee all day, live music, prizes, and food and beverage samples. The coffeehouse is located at 102, 8 Wellesley Street East, Toronto ON.

For more information about Good Earth, please visit www.goodearthcoffeehouse.com.

Toronto, April 4, 2023- Baskin-Robbins Canada has completed a national program to instal leading-edge digital screens in all its 109 ice cream shops across the country. Implemented with Stingray Business, an industry leader in the field of in-store media solutions, the instal project began in January 2023 and includes Samsung displays which are part of the brand’s new Moments store design.

“We’re delighted to offer our guests a new way to appreciate our menu assortment,” says Craig Walker, Senior Director of International Business at Baskin-Robbins. “I’m confident the new screens will encourage people to try something new the next time they visit one of our shops. Desserts deserve the spotlight – especially when they’re colourful, inventive, and delicious.”  

The screens are part of a new Baskin-Robbins brand identity first introduced in Canada in April 2022 as well as a new store concept, Moments, first introduced in August 2022 in Surrey, BC. Baskin-Robbins will create most of its content in-house to focus on new or featured products, new flavours, and promotions. Franchisees will have the capability of updating their local pricing and promotions individually to connect dynamically to guests in shop and allow a more engaging platform.

“At Stingray Business, we are committed to providing our clients with cutting-edge solutions that enhance the in-store experience and drive sales,” says Renaud Lafrance, Chief Revenue Officer of Stingray. “It was a pleasure to work alongside the Baskin-Robbins Canada team to install these digital menu board in their 109 stores. We’re confident that these state-of-the-art digital screens will enable Baskin-Robbins to better engage with their customers and showcase their delicious and innovative menu offerings in a dynamic and captivating way."

For more information on Baskin-Robbins Canada, to order online or to inquire about numerous franchising opportunities, visit baskinrobbins.ca

Affinity Group Canada is pleased to announce our appointment as Ghirardelli Professional Products national foodservice broker for Canada.

Ghirardelli Makes Life a Bite Better!

Ghirardelli Professional Products is part of the Lindt & Sprüngli group, they are known for their excellence, never compromising on quality, and forward thinking.

Ghirardelli Professional Products offer a wide range of premium ingredients in sauce, hot chocolate, frappe, baking chocolate, and cocoa powders for the foodservice and specialty coffee industry.

Ghirardelli Professional Products are the perfect choice for creating exceptional desserts, mochas, milkshakes, smoothies, and hot cocoas.

TORONTO, March 28, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Restaurants Canada was pleased to see some positive measures in the 2023 federal budget to support Canada’s foodservice sector. The budget also addressed the federal alcohol excise duty, which will now only increase to 2 per cent on April 1 rather than the initially planned 6.3 per cent. The federal government also highlighted an agreement with major credit card companies to reduce interchange fees, a big win for our sector, as it leaves more dollars in the hands of business owners – we look forward to more details to come on this initiative.

The Canadian Government also took Restaurants Canada’s recommendations to invest in the hospitality and tourism industry through its Canadian Tourism Growth Strategy, which has the potential to bring back economic benefits to our sector.

Though today’s announcement brought some positives, the government missed an opportunity to implement sector-specific support for the restaurant industry, which was the hardest hit by the pandemic. “By leaving several of our recommendations on the table, such as extending the CEBA loans by 36 months and implementing a scale-down model on the forgivable portion, as we proposed in our Federal Pre-Budget Submission 2023, the Canadian Government missed the opportunity to save struggling small businesses from an uncertain fate,” said, Olivier Bourbeau, Vice President of Federal & Québec Affairs. “In a recent Restaurants Canada survey, we found nearly 20 per cent of the restaurants that have yet to reimburse CEBA will not be able to repay it in part or at all” added Bourbeau. 

Despite effective measures proposed by Restaurants Canada to address the foodservice sector’s labour shortage, the budget also failed to improve and streamline the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program by;

Implementing the Trusted Employers’ Program;

Simplifying the TFWP application process, lowering fees and addressing the backlog;

Creating a dedicated food service stream (for TFWs); and 

Remodeling the NOC codes (classification C and D): regrouping positions from the same field/expertise, providing more flexibility and training/promoting opportunities.

We are encouraged to see the creation of a committee to work on regulatory frameworks in order to explore the opportunities to address cost of goods led by the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities. To explore mutual recognition of regulatory standards, which will ensure goods and services are able to move more freely addressing some of the regulatory burdens. We look forward to working with the government to ensure this work delivers reduced costs for our sector.

Restaurants Canada will continue to work in collaboration with the Government of Canada to ensure it continues to move forward with recommendations that render additional gains for foodservice from coast to coast to coast.