Expansion News: Seattle's Best Coffee and Long John Silver's <b></b>

* Seattle's Best Coffee Seattle-Specialty coffee company Seattle's Best Coffee (SBC) opened its first Canadian café on October 21 in Vancouver. Plans are underway to open 25 more cafes in western Canada during the next five years.

"This café is important to SBC and our parent company, AFC Enterprises," said Tom Mitchell, vice president and general manager of International Coffee. "It shows our commitment for further development in target venues and markets outside the United States."

SBC only recently began franchising outside the United States and has already signed commitments to build more than 325 strategically located SBC cafes in Canada, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and the Middle East in the next five years. -PRNewswire

* Long John Silver's Dallas-Long John Silver's Restaurants Inc. announced plans to double the number of its restaurants in Texas from 180 restaurants to 360. The country's largest seafood restaurant chain said it would accomplish the explosive growth through an aggressive franchise development growth effort and by introducing co-branded Long John Silvers/A&W Restaurants units in the Lone Star State.

Long John Silver's will expand its number of Texas restaurants in a variety of venues, including:

--Nontraditional sites such as convenience stores and gas stations, where the company has experienced recent success in Kentucky and other states.

--Long John Silver's/A&W Restaurants co-branded units-In 1999, Long John Silver's was acquired by Yorkshire Global Restaurants, the parent company for A&W Restaurants, the nation's oldest franchise restaurant chain. The combined operation represents 2,200 restaurants, making it the 13th largest quick-service restaurant chain.

The first Long John Silver's/A&W co-branded operation in Texas is scheduled for an early-November opening in Cypress, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Four other co-brands are scheduled to open in Houston next year. -PRNewswire