Costa Coffee is a British multinational coffeehouse company headquartered in Dunstable, United
Kingdom, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Whitbread.
It is the second largest coffeehouse chain in the world behind Starbucks and the largest
in the United Kingdom.
Costa Coffee was founded in London in 1971 by the brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa 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 1,700 stores across 35 countries.
The business has 1,375 UK restaurants, 2,500 Costa Express vending facilities and a further
800 outlets overseas.
History Bruno and Sergio Costa founded a coffee roastery
in Lambeth, London, in 1971, supplying local caterers.
Costa branched out to retailing coffee in 1978, when its first store opened in Vauxhall
Bridge Road, London.
In 1995, the business was acquired by Whitbread, 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.
By the end of 2010, the company had overtaken Starbucks in the UK, reaching a 37.6% market
share measured by revenues.
Operations Locations
Costa Coffee operates 1175 outlets in the United Kingdom as of January 2011.
Internationally, it operates 442 stores throughout the world in 35 countries.
As well as their usual high street location, Costa Coffee outlets can be found in airports
and within Waterstone's bookstores, WHSmith, Homebase branches, Marriott Hotels, Odeon
Cinemas, some Premier Inn Hotels, Waitrose and Tesco stores, Pizza Hut branches, Beefeater
pubs, Moto and RoadChef motorway services and in some hospitals.
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.
Costa Express Following Whitbread's £59.5m acquisition
of Coffee Nation, a chain of coffee machines, the machines were re-branded as Costa Express.
The company plans to expand to target hospitals, universities and transport interchanges.
These coffee bars will use the same coffee beans as used in Costa stores and will use
fresh milk.
Coffee production
Costa Coffee has its own roastery.
The blend served in retail stores is their own "Mocha Italia"; it contains six parts
arabica beans to one part robusta beans.
Costa Coffee employs Gennaro Pelliccia as a coffee taster, who had his tongue insured
for £10m with Lloyd's of London in 2009.
Costa Book Awards
Costa Coffee has been the sponsor of the Costa Book Awards since 2006.
Zoning and opposition to franchise locations In 2011, it was reported that two Costa Coffee
outlets in Bristol had opened without correct planning permission.
An investigation into whether a third Costa coffee shop in north Bristol opened without
the correct planning permission was launched in January 2012.
The planning appeals against the refusal of planning permission and enforcement action
were upheld by an independent government appointed Inspector on 14 August 2012, who also awarded
full costs against Bristol City Council in relation to one of the stores.
The decision received criticism from councillors across the political spectrum.
In 2012, Costa faced opposition to its plans to open an outlet in Totnes, Devon.
However, an open letter was issued by Costa in conjunction with local authorities to state
that because of the unique nature of the town and local pressure it had decided to pull
out.
Also in 2012, residents in Southwold tried to campaign against the opening of a Costa
coffee shop in their town.
Planners turned down the original planning application by Costa but it was awarded planning
permission on appeal.
January 2014 saw another license application rejected, this time in Hinchley Wood, Surrey.
The village had previously seen attempts by McDonalds to purchase property on the same
street in 1999.
However Whitbread Plc have appealed against this decision, with a decision to come in
March 2014.
See also List of coffeehouse chains
Coffee portal References
External links Official website