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Special treatment? COSTA's China business was evaluated separately!

Published: 2026-03-05 Author:

Last Updated: 2026/03/05, ▲ Click to pay attention| Daily Boutique Coffee Culture Magazine Coffee Factory In January this year, British media reported that global beverage giant Coca-Cola had suspended the auction process for its British coffee chain Costa, which had lasted for nearly half a year, no longer negotiated with bidders, and gave up selling Costa coffee at a low price.

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In January this year, British media reported that global beverage giant Coca-Cola had suspended the auction process for its British coffee chain Costa, which had lasted for nearly half a year, no longer negotiated with bidders, and abandoned the related business of selling Costa coffee at a low price.

However, according to Bloomberg's latest news, Coca-Cola confirmed that it will retain 100% control of Costa Coffee, but its chief financial officer said it is evaluating the brand's China business.

According to reports, the spokesperson said the company "currently has no immediate plans to take action against Costa, but only wants it to perform better." He also pointed out that Costa performed well in some core markets, including the UK, Ireland and some Western European markets, but the China business was "more challenging than we expected."

"This is an aspect of the portfolio that we continue to evaluate," the chief financial officer said in an interview with Bloomberg."We will pay close attention to Costa's China business throughout 2026." But when asked whether Costa Coffee would withdraw from the China market, the CFO did not give a clear response, saying that "the company has not made any decision."

During the bidding for the Costa business, people familiar with the matter revealed that some investment institutions excluded the weak China store business and only sought to acquire business in the UK and other international markets. In an interview with the media, Costa's Asia Pacific manager also said that China's business has been hit by the epidemic in previous years and mentioned that the competition in the China coffee market is extremely fierce.

There are indications that Coca Cola's current special arrangements for Coast's China business are not sudden. However, while this signal has attracted outside attention, it has also led to speculation whether Costa will embark on a similar path to Starbucks, transforming its brand through selling its China business and restructuring its capital to change the current situation of poor performance.

In this regard, industry insiders pointed out that since the acquisition of Costa, the brand has three major business segments in China, namely, stores, FMCG business (including ready-to-drink coffee, packaged coffee beans, etc.) and coffee service business (Kashijia Express Choice and Self-service Coffee Machine Express). Among these three sectors, Costa's FMCG business performed well in the China market, with sales of ready-to-drink coffee and branded snacks of the same name being good.

Prior to this, Coca-Cola clearly retained its ready-to-drink product business when evaluating Costa, and Xiaoshi said that it had not heard from people familiar with the matter that the ready-to-drink business in China had been evaluated. Therefore, it is unclear whether Coca-Cola's evaluation of Costa's China business includes all businesses including the FMCG sector.

In addition, narrow-door dining data shows that as of January 14 this year, Costa had 321 stores in China, a decrease of about 15% compared with the same period last year, continuing the contraction pace in recent years. From the perspective of professionals, considering the small size and limited growth of Costa's China business stores, potential buyers are unlikely to be larger peers. They may be companies that want to deploy coffee across borders and have financial strength. They bluntly said,"Costa's sale of its China business alone is relatively less attractive."

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