After buying Costa for $5.1 billion, Coca-Cola launched its first Costa canned coffee!

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After completing its formal acquisition of Costa at the beginning of this year, Coca-Cola is expanding its Costa coffee business and will launch a series of new ready-to-drink packaged coffee in the UK at the end of June and further expand to Poland and China. This is the first Costa ready-to-drink coffee launched by Coca-Cola after its $5.1 billion acquisition of Costa. It is understood that Coca-Cola's Costa instant coffee series includes classic lattes (Classic Latte), caramel lattes (Caramel Latte) and American coffee (Black Americano). Its capacity is 250ml, and the coffee cans after drinking are 100% recyclable.

The main selling point of these products is low sugar, which contains only 15-180 calories per 250 ml, about 30% less sugar than most instant coffee today. The same double concentrated 200ml canned Starbucks coffee contains 142 calories and 17 grams of sugar.

The introduction of ready-to-drink coffee is a microcosm of Coca-Cola's decarbonization. In 2018, Coca-Cola bought Costa for $5.1 billion. James Quincy, president and chief executive of Coca-Cola, has said that Coca-Cola bought Costa, the UK coffee chain, not to challenge Starbucks, but to create a new coffee experience, in which the market opportunity for in-store stores is so great that Costa Coffee alone plans to expand the number of stores in China to 1200, three times the current number.

"although sugar-free tea drinks currently account for a small share of the market, they have shown a double-digit annual growth rate in recent years, which is much higher than that of sugar-sweetened tea drinks. It is worth noting that consumers in the north prefer sweet tea and fruit tea, while consumers in the south prefer original tea, so Coca-Cola will expand different market spaces based on these materials. " The head of Coca-Cola said.

Dominic Paul, chief executive of Costa Coffee, said that canned coffee was launched for the first time, and through this cooperation, consumers will be able to drink Costa coffee anytime, anywhere. This series selects the countries or regions that are the first to launch according to the turnover of Costa Coffee in different markets around the world. It is said that it will be launched first in the UK this month, followed by China and Poland and other places, the main reason for choosing the above regions is the outstanding performance of Costa in these countries.

The global coffee market is expected to be about $500 billion and is growing at 6 per cent a year, and the acquisition of Costa is seen as an important move by Coca-Cola to expand its business line. Since CEO James James Quincy took office, the carbonated drinks company has been transforming into a "whole beverage company" through non-carbonated drinks such as coffee, pure water, smoothies and even alcoholic beverages.

Coca-Cola and Costa are not the first beverage giant plus coffee chain. Nestl é, which bought Starbucks' coffee retail business six months earlier than Coca-Cola, has seen a return on investment. Nestl é's sales rose 4.3% to $22 billion in the first quarter of this year, and the report said several acquisitions contributed to a 6% increase in sales in the Americas, mostly thanks to a Starbucks retail license.

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