Costa Coffee

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Costa Coffee
Subsidiary
Industry Hospitality
Founded 1971 (London)
Founder Bruno and Sergio Costa
Headquarters Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England
Number of locations
 Increase 3,080+ (2015)
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Dominic Paul (CEO)
Products Coffee, tea, sandwiches and iced drinks.
£951.9 million (2014/15)[1]
Parent Whitbread PLC
Website costa.co.uk

Costa Coffee is a British multinational coffeehouse company headquartered in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Whitbread. It is the second largest coffeehouse chain in the world behind Starbucks and the largest in Britain.[2]

Costa Coffee was founded in London in 1971 by the Costa family as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. Acquired by Whitbread in 1995, it has since grown to over 2,861 stores across 30 countries. The business has 1,755 UK restaurants, over 3,500 Costa Express vending facilities and a further 1,106 outlets overseas, including over 300 in China. [3]

History

Italian Immigrant brothers Bruno and Sergio Costa founded a coffee roastery in Lambeth, London, in 1971, supplying local caterers. The family had moved to England in the 1960s.[4][5] Costa branched out to selling coffee in 1978, when its first store opened in Vauxhall Bridge Road, London.

In 1985, Sergio bought out Bruno's share of the company. Bruno went on to found a tableware company.[6] By 1995, the chain already had 41 stores in UK.[7] In 1995, the business was acquired by Whitbread, UK's largest hotel and coffee shop operator, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary. In 2009, Costa celebrated the opening of its 1,000th store - in Cardiff. In December 2009, Costa Coffee agreed to acquire Coffee Heaven for £36 million, adding 79 stores in central and eastern Europe.[8]

Operations

Locations

A Costa Coffee branch in Forster Square Retail Park, Bradford
A standard Costa Coffee branch in Cyprus

Costa Coffee operates 1,755 outlets in the United Kingdom as of May 2014. Internationally, it operates 1,106 stores throughout the world in 30 countries.[9]

As well as high street locations, Costa Coffee outlets can be found in airports and within Waterstone's bookstores, WHSmith, Homebase branches, larger Next stores, Marriott Hotels, Odeon Cinemas, some Premier Inn Hotels, Waitrose, Debenhams and Tesco stores, Pizza Hut branches, Beefeater pubs, Moto and RoadChef motorway services and in some hospitals and the Manchester Primark.[10] Smaller sub-units are also set up in railway stations and airports throughout the UK. Many of Costa Coffee's branches located in airports, cinemas and hospitals are either individual or corporate franchises. Costa Coffee also has small outlets positioned on out-of-town business parks, often among other food retailers, and on-site at various businesses.

Costa Coffee currently has branches in many countries.[11]

Costa Express

Following Whitbread's £59.5m acquisition of Coffee Nation, a chain of coffee machines, the machines were re-branded as Costa Express.[12] The company plans to expand to target hospitals, universities and transport interchanges.[13] These coffee bars will use the same coffee beans as used in Costa stores and will use fresh milk.[14] On February 29, 2016 Costa announced a partnership with Shell Canada to distribute 150 Costa Express machines throughout its Canadian petrol stations. [15]

Coffee production

File:Cup of Costa Coffee.jpg
Coffee served in a Massimo cup.

Costa Coffee has its own roastery. The blend served in retail stores is their own "Mocha Italia"; it contains a blend of arabica (70%) and robusta (30%).[16]

Costa Coffee employs Gennaro Pelliccia as a coffee taster, who had his tongue insured for £10m with Lloyd's of London in 2009.[17][18]

Costa Coffee Club

Costa Coffee has its own loyalty scheme that is called the Costa Coffee Club. Using a Loyalty card or an app for Android phones or iPhones, members may gain points which allows them to get free coffee and other goods. Points are added whenever a purchase is made, and the card or app is presented and swiped or scanned.

Costa Book Awards

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Main article: Costa Book Awards

Costa Coffee has been the sponsor of the Costa Book Awards (formerly the Whitbread Book Awards) since 2006.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.whitbread.co.uk/content/dam/whitbread/download_centre/reports_and_results/2015/Interactive-Annual-Report-2015.pdf
  2. ↑ http://miranda.hemscott.com/ir/wtb/pdf/Annual_Report_and_Accounts.pdf
  3. ↑ http://www.whitbread.co.uk/content/dam/whitbread/pdfs/investors/reports-and-presentations/annual-reports/2014/Whitbread_Annual_Report_2014.pdf
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Park View Shopping Centre - Costa Coffee
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Growing Business Success Stories - Costa Express: Scott Martin 10 June 2011
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Costa Coffee: The Perfect Cup
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons

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