Craig’s Cookies has grown to 25 locations across Canada, with the Toronto-founded brand preparing for further expansion into Western Canada and other markets outside its established Ontario base.
Founder Craig Pike told Retail Insider that Edmonton is expected to open in late 2026 or early 2027, while Vancouver is being considered for 2027. The company is also looking at opportunities in Eastern Canada and additional Ontario markets as its franchise network expands.
“We’re still looking at expansion across the country, but more so now looking into the West Coast and a bit more into the East Coast,” Pike said in an interview.
The expansion marks a significant change from where Craig’s Cookies stood three years ago. When Retail Insider interviewed Pike in April 2023, the company had six locations and was preparing to use franchising as its next vehicle for growth. The franchise system has since become central to the company’s expansion.
Port Credit Marks 25th Location
The latest addition is in Port Credit, marking the company’s first location in Mississauga. The store at 102 Lakeshore Road East opened this summer and is operated by franchisee Imtiaz Hussain.
Pike said Mississauga was a logical extension of a customer base Craig’s Cookies had already established across the Greater Toronto Area. “We have so many guests and lovers of Craig’s Cookies that live in Mississauga,” he said. “To be able to offer our baked goods to Mississauga means a lot to me.”
The network has also moved considerably farther beyond Toronto. Craig’s Cookies now operates in markets including Calgary, Halifax, Ottawa, St. John’s, Windsor and London, alongside its larger concentration of stores across the Greater Toronto Area and Southern Ontario. Calgary represented the company’s first move into Western Canada; Edmonton would deepen its Alberta presence, while Vancouver would take the brand into British Columbia.
Pike said expansion is being driven by individual market opportunities instead of a predetermined national store count. The company considers demographics, population growth and the ability of individual communities to support a location while trying to avoid clustering too many stores in one market.
“We don’t want to oversaturate any market either,” he said. “It’s really making sure that we’re keeping an eye on the pulse of what neighbourhoods and communities are growing.”
Pike pointed to Oshawa and communities along the broader corridor between Toronto and Ottawa as areas worth watching as populations grow. The company also has to plan well ahead: finding real estate, negotiating a lease and getting a store built can sometimes take a year, during which local demographics can continue to change.
Franchising Becomes the Growth Engine
The current expansion has its roots in a strategy Craig’s Cookies was only beginning to implement when Pike spoke with Retail Insider in 2023. At the time, he had opened six stores and said the company was receiving franchise inquiries from prospective operators in markets ranging from Vancouver to Abu Dhabi.
Pike was cautious about growing faster than the company could support. He said preserving the culture and integrity of Craig’s Cookies mattered more than reaching an arbitrary store count. One strong new franchise in a year could be sufficient, while a considerably larger network could work if the company had the infrastructure to support it.
Later in 2023, Craig’s Cookies began putting that strategy into practice. Its first franchise opened in Niagara-on-the-Lake, followed by a multi-store development agreement with LLH Loose Change Holdings that called for at least five additional locations, with an emphasis on major regional shopping centres. It represented a significant change for a business that had largely expanded through corporate stores in Toronto.
“We’re generally still a new franchising system,” Pike said in the latest interview. “It’s only been two and a half years, and we’ve learned a lot over the last two and a half years.”
Those lessons include refining store operations and strengthening support for franchisees. Pike said maintaining consistency becomes increasingly important as the network grows, requiring sufficient corporate infrastructure to keep stores aligned with the brand. Craig’s Cookies is also using feedback from franchisees to improve operations and identify efficiencies.
A More Defined Real Estate Formula
Craig’s Cookies has developed a clearer real estate model as its footprint has expanded. Pike said the company generally prefers approximately 1,000 square feet for a franchisee’s first location, although the concept can operate in spaces ranging from roughly 800 to 1,200 square feet.
Site selection considers demographics and the surrounding community, while franchisees receive defined territories negotiated around individual locations. The model has also become increasingly flexible in terms of format.
Craig’s Cookies began primarily as a neighbourhood streetfront concept but has since established a significant presence in shopping centres. Its network includes stores at CF Toronto Eaton Centre, Scarborough Town Centre, Vaughan Mills and Bramalea City Centre, alongside streetfront and tourist-oriented locations.
Pike said the customer and operating dynamics of mall stores differ from those of neighbourhood locations. “It’s a different ballgame,” he said. “It’s a different kind of guest. It’s a different kind of experience, but equally enjoyable and successful.”
Tourist-oriented locations have different seasonal patterns, with stronger business during peak visitor periods and quieter times of the year. The range of formats has given Craig’s Cookies experience operating across neighbourhood streets, tourist destinations and major shopping centres.
Pike said broker Julie Auckland has worked with Craig’s Cookies on real estate since around 2018 and assists franchise partners as they search for locations.
Designing a Concept That Can Scale
The physical design of Craig’s Cookies has evolved alongside its real estate strategy. The original Parkdale store was about 300 square feet, and as additional stores opened, Pike repeated elements of its design to establish a recognizable identity.
When Retail Insider interviewed him in 2023, Pike explained that several of those elements had personal origins. Hardwood was intended to recall his grandmother’s Victorian home in St. John’s, while the signature blue represented the Atlantic Ocean. Black-and-white flooring was used to evoke a traditional kitchen.
Those choices subsequently became useful as Craig’s Cookies moved into franchising. Pike said the company had been thinking about replicability while it was still opening corporate stores, after receiving advice years earlier to consider how its design could support broader expansion.
The result is a relatively simple store format that remains recognizable as Craig’s Cookies while being easier to reproduce. The company has also refined workflow behind the counter, incorporating feedback from franchisees about how stores can operate more efficiently as the network grows.
Baking Remains Local to Each Store
Despite reaching 25 locations, Craig’s Cookies continues to make and bake its cookies at individual stores instead of distributing finished product from a centralized production facility.
“Right now everybody’s baking and making their cookies themselves at each location,” Pike said.
It is the same approach he described to Retail Insider in 2023, when the company had six stores. At the time, Pike said fresh on-site production was important to maintaining the integrity of the product. Scaling that system across a much larger network adds operational complexity, and he acknowledged that it could eventually evolve as Craig’s Cookies looks for additional efficiencies.
“There’s always room for us to change that model as we grow to make things even more and more efficient,” Pike said.
For now, production remains at store level. Pike said the broader objective is to make the operation as straightforward and profitable as possible for franchisees while maintaining the product and experience customers expect.
From Bicycle Deliveries to a National Network
Pike grew up in St. John’s and moved to Toronto in 2004 to attend theatre school at George Brown College. He later worked professionally as an actor, including four seasons at the Shaw Festival, before returning to Toronto.
In 2013, after losing a restaurant job, Pike began selling cookies to generate some income. He promoted them through Facebook and Instagram and delivered orders himself by bicycle, telling Retail Insider in 2023 that he sold 200 dozen chocolate-chip cookies during his first month.
For several years, the business operated alongside his work in bartending and the arts. Pike baked overnight, sold cookies at flea markets and delivered orders around Toronto before the brand began attracting a broader audience.
An appearance in Air Canada’s enRoute magazine in 2017 helped generate more corporate and catering business. A subsequent relationship with Williams Sonoma led to pop-ups at Yorkdale Shopping Centre, where Pike eventually began baking inside the store using its demonstration kitchen.
Pike opened the first permanent Craig’s Cookies store in Parkdale on April 8, 2018, in a space of approximately 300 square feet. He recalled having roughly $4,000 when he committed to the location and quickly discovering that opening even a small retail business required considerably more capital.
The store gained traction quickly. Pike told Retail Insider in 2023 that he initially expected approximately $80,000 in sales during the first year but ultimately generated roughly $600,000.
Church Street followed in 2019, with additional locations opening during and after the pandemic. By 2023, the company had reached six stores and Pike was preparing to shift more of its future expansion to franchise operators.
Partnerships Extend the Brand
Craig’s Cookies has also continued using partnerships to reach customers outside its own stores. The company recently worked with WINNERS on a limited-edition cookie and broader national campaign, with Pike saying WINNERS approached Craig’s Cookies about the collaboration.
Brand partnerships have been part of the company’s growth for years. Nordstrom approached Craig’s Cookies when the business was still small, leading to an early collaboration at CF Toronto Eaton Centre.
“I remember the early days, Nordstrom reached out to me and said that they would love to have Craig’s Cookies in their Nordstrom in Toronto,” Pike said. “At that time I think I only had one little store.”
Pike said additional collaborations are planned for the remainder of 2026, although he was not yet able to identify the companies involved. The assortment is evolving as well, with Craig’s Cookies adding banana pudding, including a core version and rotating monthly features, while new cookie flavours are planned for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Expansion Without a Fixed Store Target
Pike does not put a final number on how many Craig’s Cookies locations Canada could ultimately support. Western Canada is a particular area of interest, while the company continues to examine Eastern Canada and growing Ontario communities.
The strategy depends on finding viable markets, suitable real estate and franchise partners capable of operating the business. It remains consistent with what Pike outlined when franchising was in its early stages: growth has to be supported by the company’s infrastructure and by demand in individual markets.
The scale has changed considerably. When Pike discussed the strategy with Retail Insider in 2023, Craig’s Cookies had six stores and franchising represented the next stage of the business. Three years later, it has 25 locations across multiple provinces and retail formats, with Edmonton expected next and Vancouver under consideration.
For Craig’s Cookies, the next stage will be managing that expansion as the company enters additional markets while maintaining consistency across a growing franchise network.
