1.   But Au Bon Pains have found expansion into the suburbs difficult and face increasingly tough competition in urban settings from bagel shops and ubiquitous cafe chains like Starbucks.

2.   The expansion of Torrefazione, the upper-end Italian-style niche cafe chain, will be modest and come through company-owned restaurants, McDonald says.

3.   Within London, the street cafe chain is seen getting a strong boost from unusually hot summer weather.

4.   Yet the multiple stores in a cyber cafe chain can offer national hardware and software vendors an opportunity to expose their products to ready-made buyers.