- Costa Coffee
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Costa Coffee 
Type Subsidiary Industry Hospitality Founded 1971 Founder(s) Sergio and Bruno Costa Headquarters Dunstable, England, United Kingdom Area served United Kingdom, South Asia, China, Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe Products Hot drinks, particularly coffee, small snacks and soft drinks Operating income £340.9m (2009/10)[1] Parent Whitbread Website http://costa.co.uk Costa Coffee is a British coffeehouse company founded in 1971 by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa, as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. Since 1995 it has been a subsidiary of Whitbread, since when the company has grown to over 1700 stores in the UK and abroad.[2] The company's current managing director is John Derkach and Adrian Johnson is Chief Operating Officer. It is the largest coffeehouse chain in the United Kingdom and second-largest in the world (behind Starbucks).[3]
Contents
History
Bruno and Sergio Costa set up their coffee roastery in Lambeth, London in 1971, supplying local caterers and coffee shops with their slow-roasted blend mocha Italia.[4] Costa branched out to retailing coffee in 1978, when their first store opened in Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, England.
In 1995, the business was acquired by Whitbread and is now a subsidiary of Whitbread Company. In 2009 Costa celebrated the opening of their 1000th store in Cardiff, and is consequently the largest coffee chain in the UK. In 2010 they acquired 'Coffee Heaven', which had a strong presence in central and eastern Europe, for £36m adding another 79 stores.[5] By the end of 2010 the company had overtaken Starbucks in the UK, taking 37.6% of the market share based on turnover.[6]
Operations
Locations
Costa Coffee operates 1175 outlets in the United Kingdom as of January 2011, making it the largest British chain in terms of stores. Internationally it operates 442 stores throughout the world in 28 countries.[7]
Its outlets can be found in airports and within Waterstone's bookstores, WHSmith, Homebase branches, Marriott Hotels, Odeon Cinemas, Tesco stores, Pizza Hut branches, Beefeater Pubs, Moto and RoadChef motorway services and in some workplaces.[8] Smaller sub-units are also set up in railway stations and airports throughout the UK. Costa Coffee also have small outlets positioned on out-of-town business parks, often among other food retailers. Their biggest branch is located in Dubai and can seat 320 people.
- Countries currently with Costa Coffee locations
Costa Express
Costa Express is a new concept created by a coffee chain of self-service coffee bars. Following Whitbread's £59.5m acquisition of Coffee Nation - a chain of coffee machines - the 900 Coffee Nation machines will be replaced and re-branded as Costa Express.[9] Costa have plans to expand Costa Express to 3000 locations. Coffee Nation are currently mostly located within Tesco stores and motorway services. Costa plan to target hospitals, universities and transport interchanges. [10] These coffee bars will use the same coffee beans as are used in Costa stores and will use fresh milk. Prices will be from £1.95. [11]
Coffee production
Coffee served in Costa's signature Massimo cup, which is reserved for large orders.
Costa have their own roastery and employ the only three Italian Master Roasters in the UK.[citation needed] The blend served in retail stores is known as "Mocha Italia" and contains six parts arabica beans and one part robusta beans.[12] Costa Coffee employs Gennaro Pelliccia as a coffee taster, who had his tongue insured for £10m with Lloyd's of London in 2009.[13]
Costa Book Awards
Main article: Costa Book AwardsSince 2006 Costa Coffee is the sponsor of Whitbread Book Awards, which are now called the Costa Book Awards.
See also
References
- ^ Whitbread Annual Report 2010
- ^ Whitbread PLC - hospitality company profiles
- ^ http://miranda.hemscott.com/ir/wtb/pdf/Annual_Report_and_Accounts.pdf
- ^ Costa Coffee
- ^ The Guardian 4 March 2010
- ^ Caterer and Hotelkeeper 14 January 2011
- ^ http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=conWebDoc.35069
- ^ Park View Shopping Centre - Costa Coffee
- ^ Growing Business Success Stories - Costa Express: Scott Martin 10 June 2011
- ^ Guardian - Whitbread self serve coffee machines
- ^ Costa Express
- ^ Costa Coffee: The Perfect Cup
- ^ The Telegraph 9 March 2009
External links
- Official website
- Costa Business
- Costa Coffee at Motorway Services
- Costa Book Awards website
- Costa Foundation website
Current businesses: Premier Inn · Beefeater · Brewers Fayre · Taybarns · Table Table · Costa Coffee · Touchbase
Former businesses: Swallow Hotels · Berni Inn · T.G.I. Friday's · Pizza Hut · Whitbread Inns · Hogshead · Britvic · David Lloyd Leisure · ThreshersCategories:- Coffee houses of the United Kingdom
- Companies based in Bedfordshire
- Retail companies established in 1971
- Dunstable
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