AEGIS BRANDS SELLING SECOND CUP TO FOODTASTIC

Aegis Brands Inc. says it has signed a deal to sell its Second Cup Coffee Co. operations to Montreal-based Foodtastic Inc. The company says the sale price includes $14 million in cash, plus a post-closing earn-out. It is the latest in a long series of ownership changes for Second Cup, which was founded in 1975 and now constitutes Canada's third-largest coffee-focused chain behind Tim Hortons and Starbucks. Foodtastic is a franchiser of multiple restaurant concepts. According to the latest quarterly report from Aegis, there are 231 Second Cup locations throughout Canada, including 200 franchise locations and 31 company-owned-and-operated locations. The Second Cup Ltd. changed its name to Aegis Brands as part of a plan to diversify beyond coffee shops. In addition to Second Cup, Aegis Brands owns the Ottawa-based Bridgehead coffee shop chain and Hemisphere Cannabis Co.