Our story
From strength to strength
1971
Fenchurch Street, London. Italian brothers, Bruno and Sergio Costa, set up a small roastery and start creating a signature blend. One hundred and twelve blind tests later, they find their trademark recipe. The brothers name it ‘Mocha Italia’ – and it’s our signature blend to this day.
1978
The brothers move to south London, turning a huge plot in Old Paradise Street, Lambeth, into a roastery. Together they continue to blend and send their coffee to some of the most respected establishments around.
1981
The eighties bring the first-ever Costa Coffee shop, in London’s Vauxhall Bridge Road. More shops follow in prestigious locations across the capital.
1999
Our first international store opens at the aviation club, Dubai.
2005
Costa Coffee opens its first-ever store in India. Meanwhile, we launch our own blend of Fairtrade coffee at no extra cost.
2006
We set up Costa Foundation, a registered charity that improves the social and economic welfare of coffee-growing communities
2011
Costa Express launches in the UK after we acquire Coffee Nation.
2017
The new Costa Roastery opens in Basildon – one of Europe’s largest roasteries.
Our roastery is one of the biggest roasteries in Europe and allows us to produce 45,000 tonnes of coffee a year, quadrupling our coffee roasting capacity compared to our previous home in Lambeth.
Not just content with being the biggest, our roastery is also one of the most sustainable buildings in the world and we responsibly source all our raw coffee beans from 100% Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms, where they are then ready to be transported to Tilbury Docks, Essex, located just 14 miles away from the Costa Coffee Roastery.
2018
Costa Coffee launches a new in-home range, which includes Nespresso and Dulce Gusto-compatible pod. We also establish a landmark partnership with Coronation Street!
2019
Whitbread completes the sale of Costa Coffee to The Coca-Cola Company for $3.9bn. A month later in the UK, we win the Nation’s Favourite Coffee Shop for the ninth year in succession.
The Roastery
The roast with the most
Bigger and better, with room for more beans: in 2017 we built one of the biggest (and most sustainable) roasteries in Europe.
Our business structure
Our coffee offering
Retail
For the complete Coffee Costa experience, head to one of our stores. Here, our skilled baristas craft our full range, from luscious lattes to cracking cortados, for you to sip on site or take away.
Costa X
Costa X combines coffee innovation with intelligent technology to deliver the very best customer propositions, solving unmet coffee moments all over the world.
Our B2B platform hosts a variety of ground-breaking coffee solutions, not least our Costa Express and Smart Café business, where our pioneering technology continues to delight coffee fans for every occasion.
FMCG
Classic lattes, refreshing frappes and double shot espressos – they’re now available in cans or bottles, from retailers around the world.
At home
Be your own barista and brew your favourite blend at home. With our beans, pods and premium instant coffee, the Costa Coffee experience is waiting in your kitchen.
Our baristas
Celebrating great coffee
Every year, we put our Baristas through their paces to find those that are bringing our purpose to life and inspiring the world to love great coffee. With heats taking place in all of our global markets – UK & Ireland, Europe, China and MEA region – our competition culminates in a Champion of Champions final, which is held in London and live streamed to a global audience to see who takes home the Barista of the Year trophy.
Our partners
Our partner network
Our pioneering partnerships come in all shapes and sizes, from our bottlers to individual partners and larger corporates they stretch far and wide from the UK & Ireland to the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Together they provide complementary expertise and know-how across Retail, B2B, FMCG and core functions. By leveraging the collective wisdom, experience, and capability of every person in our Costa-Coke universe, we can craft innovative, exciting and uplifting moments for coffee fans worldwide.