Heavenly Desserts, a luxury dessert franchise with fine dining restaurants across the UK, is rumoured to be opening a branch in Aberdeen – but what facts do we have?
Many areas of the city centre have been tarnished by the coronavirus pandemic, in particular Union Street, with a line-up of shop fronts laying empty as a result of the testing period.
But when one door closes, another one opens. And in this case, it has opened for Heavenly Desserts.
The franchise, which was founded in 2008, has submitted plans to open a restaurant and hot food takeaway in part of the former Sainsbury’s Local on Union Street.
Speculation has started growing regarding the business opening in Aberdeen, however we have outlined everything we know to provide clarity.
Heavenly Desserts: What you need to know
Heavenly Desserts is one of the fastest-growing dessert franchise companies in the UK.
Built on the vision of friends Mohammed Imran and Yousif Aslam, who operate and manage the franchise, it offers contemporary interiors and quality desserts across its branches.
These desserts include:
- Milk cake
- Cheesecake
- Croffles – a marriage between a croissant and a waffle machine
- Cookie dough
- Brownies
- Milkshakes
- Mochi
- Sundaes
They also serve a variety of tempting cocktails.
The franchise currently only has stores based in the UK, however it is anticipated that Heavenly Desserts venues will appear across the globe in the future.
Potential stores include locations in New York, Texas, Washington, California, Karachi, Lahore, Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Copenhagen and Alborg, among others.
The information we have
We understand that the business has committed to part of the former Sainsbury’s Local at 206 Union Street.
The application was lodged by the director of Heavenly Aberdeen this week.
A decision date is still to be set and a decision is still to be made by the local authority.
If successful, it will only be the second Heavenly Desserts branch to open in Scotland, with the other located on Dundee Street in Edinburgh. This opened in February.
We know that the business has lodged plans to transform the former shop unit into two units: one becoming a restaurant serving food and drink and the other acting as a hot food takeaway.
While Heavenly Desserts has only applied for a part of the building, it is rumoured that Oodles Chinese will set up shop in another.
Oodles Chinese is one of the UK’s leading fast-casual dining companies serving authentic Indo-Chinese food.
The information we don’t have
It is unclear whether or not the business intends to rent out the building to another hospitality firm later down the line, or sell it at a later date.
No other plans have been announced by the brand for Aberdeen.