Auntie Anne’s will open a store at St David’s Dewi Sant Shopping Centre in Cardiff on 3 October 2026, creating up to 10 jobs. The opening takes the pretzel brand’s UK and Ireland estate to 51 stores, weeks after it reached 50 with a site in Eastbourne, and the brand is targeting 100 by 2030.
The Cardiff store follows the brand’s 50th UK and Ireland site in Eastbourne, opened in September. Auntie Anne’s is expanding mainly through high-footfall retail and leisure destinations. The brand has not said who will operate the Cardiff store or whether it is franchised, so this article calls Auntie Anne’s a brand and an estate rather than a franchise network, unlike the bakery and pastry brands recruiting UK operators, which publish that they are.
What opens on 3 October
The store sells hand-rolled pretzels baked on site each day, alongside lemonade and a range of sweet and savoury products. The brand will mark the opening with a Giant Pretzel Pulling Ceremony at 10.45am, followed by a free pretzel giveaway from 11am to noon. From Monday to Friday during the first three weeks, classic Cinnamon, Vanilla and Original pretzels will sell for £2 under an opening offer. The Cardiff opening creates up to 10 jobs.
Opening details
The Cardiff store opens on 3 October 2026 at St David’s Dewi Sant Shopping Centre. The Giant Pretzel Pulling Ceremony is at 10.45am and the free pretzel giveaway runs from 11am to noon. Cardiff is in Wales.
The estate and the 2030 target
Auntie Anne’s UK and Ireland estate stands at 51 stores with the Cardiff opening, and the brand is targeting 100 sites across the two countries by 2030. Reaching 100 from 51 implies about 49 further openings in just over four years, an arithmetic comparison rather than a published plan. The Eastbourne opening in September was the 50th, which means the Cardiff store follows within weeks. No breakdown by nation or by format has been given.
Where the brand is opening
The brand’s expansion is focused on high-footfall retail and leisure destinations, and the Cardiff store sits inside a shopping centre in the Welsh capital. Sites of this kind suit a snack brand that depends on passing trade, and shopping centre units are a core format for brands taking on operators in the UK, though that is a general observation and not a statement from the brand.
It opens on a Saturday, 3 October 2026, with the ceremony and giveaway scheduled for the morning. No footfall or turnover figure has been given for the store, nor any information on the lease, the size of the unit or the fit-out. The Eastbourne store that took the estate to 50 opened in September, shortly before the Cardiff date.
What comes next
The immediate next step is the Cardiff opening itself, with its ceremony and giveaway. The brand has not said where store number 52 will be, and no timetable has been given for the remaining openings needed to reach 100. Auntie Anne’s has not published a split between company-run and partner-run stores, so the operating model of future sites remains open. The brand’s announcement does not use the word franchise or name an operator.
