Brief introduction of costa international coffee chain brand

The Costa brothers opened their first coffee shop in London in 1978. Since then, with the help of their family and friends, the Costa coffee store has expanded at a growth rate of opening two new stores a year. In 1988, the Costa brothers moved the roasting factory to Old Paradise Street in Lambeth, London, and used it to store roasters and green coffee beans (those waiting to be roasted). Subsequently, the company developed rapidly, and the new configuration of coffee bean roaster became a key factor in the development of Costa business. In the 1990s, Costa grew rapidly and by 1999 it had increased to 186 coffee stores; in 2000, Costa sold as many as 3.7 million cups of coffee per week.

History of development

In 1971, a pair of Italian brothers Sergio Costa and BrunoCosta started the coffee bean wholesale business.

Provide roasted coffee beans to the catering industry and Italian coffee shops. With their Italian background and Sergio's experience in blending and roasting coffee beans at Parma, Italy, the Costa brothers gradually established their unique style of roasting coffee beans. They roast the coffee beans slowly at a low temperature to make the coffee taste stronger and less bitter. The Costa brothers even mixed Arabica with Robusta beans at 6:1 to develop a unique Italian espresso (Espresso) that only Costa has. Whether it is this unique coffee bean roasting method, or the special blend of unique coffee formula MochaItalia has been still in use today, has become the mainstay of Costa business.

Costa is now all over the UK, and other retail stores include Ottakers and Waterstones bookstores, WHSmith and Homebase stores, Marriott hotels and so on. In Britain, whether on the main street, in shopping malls, or even in five-star hotels, office buildings, airports, bookstores, subway stations. People can see the coffee shop in Costa.

In the European market, Costa is growing rapidly, especially in the British Isles, where Costa opens an average of one new store every four days. As of April 2010, it had a total of 1069 stores in the UK and overtook Starbucks in 2010 to become the largest coffee shop and chain store in the UK. At the same time of local development, Costa is also actively planning global expansion. China is the first stop of its Asia-Pacific plan, after which it will expand rapidly to Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea.

As of 2010, Costa has 442 stores worldwide, including Bahrain, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Sri Lanka, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and United Arab Emirates. The world's largest store is located in Dubai, which can hold 320 people. However, Costa Coffee has not yet entered the North American market.

In 1995, 17 years after the founding of the Costa brand, it was acquired by WhitbreadPlc, one of the top 100 listed companies on the British Stock Exchange. Costa is one of Whitbread's own international brands. Founded in 1742, Whitbread is the leader in the British catering industry, with a turnover of £1.789 billion in 2003. Whitbread has more than 60,000 employees, operates restaurants, hotels, guesthouses and health clubs, owns and manages more than 14 brands, including Marriott Hotel Marriott Hotel, TGI Friday, Pizza Hut and so on.

Enter the Chinese market

At the end of 2006, Costa established Yuedaga Shijia (Shanghai) Restaurant Management Co., Ltd. in Shanghai and opened its first store in China in Nanjing East Road pedestrian Street.

In the second half of 2008, Costa established Hualian Kashijia Restaurant Management Co., Ltd. in Beijing, officially entered the Beijing market, and rapidly developed 43 chain stores in Beijing.

In April 2011, Whitbread announced a new five-year plan to double Costa's coverage network to 3500 stores and double global sales to £1.3 billion. Obviously, the expansion of Costa in China will have a direct bearing on whether the above goals can be achieved.

Unlike the American coffee culture represented by Starbucks, the pioneer of the Chinese market, Costa claims that it originated in Italy and has a "European aristocratic flavor", so it is positioned "slightly higher than Starbucks". In addition, unlike the "global chain standardization" advocated by coffee chains such as Starbucks, Costa's style in different countries and regions will be determined according to local tastes and aesthetics.

After five or six years in China, Costa ushered in its expansion period, marked by its entry into Terminal 3 (T3) of the Capital Airport, where Starbucks exited. According to Costa Coffee, the Chinese market is an "untapped gold mine". According to public data from the Beijing Coffee Industry Association, coffee consumption in China is growing at an annual rate of about 15%, much higher than the 2% worldwide. According to the average level of the international coffee consumption market, the consumption gold of the coffee market in mainland China is about 1 trillion yuan, but at present the annual coffee sales are only 70 billion yuan.

Paul Smith, president of Costa Asia, announced that the number of Costa stores will reach 2500 in 2018 and take away the market share of one and three of the Chinese coffee chain. At present, Costa adopts "personal" tactics in the Chinese market, and almost every store is close to Starbucks. This is very similar to having KFC next to McDonald's. Costa adopts close-to-body tactics in China, which not only saves the costs of market analysis and investigation, but also improves its popularity by taking advantage of Starbucks' preconceived position in the hearts of consumers.

Yueda Ka Shijia (Shanghai) Catering Management Co., Ltd., which is mainly responsible for the development and operation of major cities in East China, South China and West China, such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Wuhan and so on, is funded by 51% and 49% respectively by the British Whitbread Group and Yueda Group.

Hualian Kashijia Restaurant Management Co., Ltd. is mainly responsible for the development and operation of Costa in Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong, Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, with 50% each funded by Whitbread Group and Beijing Hualian Group.

Coffee characteristics

1. Costa coffee is the highest quality coffee because all Costa coffee beans are slowly roasted at a low temperature for 22 minutes. The coffee beans baked in this way can release the natural aroma of coffee and taste more mellow than the coffee beans roasted in the usual way, especially avoiding the scorching taste of coffee roasted in a short time.

Costa has more than 30 years of Italian tradition, perfect and high-quality coffee technology.

The coffee beans are imported from nine countries rich in coffee beans, including South America, East Africa, Asia and the far East.

2. Costa created its own unique espresso (espresso), which is made by mixing Arabica and Robusta coffee beans at 6:1.

3. In all Costa stores, we have our own Baristas professional baristas who have been trained by Costa to make authentic espresso with Italian enthusiasm.

4. The production of the highest quality coffee is a constant commitment of Costa, which has invested more than 1 million pounds in Lambeth Roastery's new roasting equipment.

5. Costa employs coffee roasters with recognized professional qualifications in the Italian coffee industry to supervise the roasting of about 35 tons of coffee per week. With the addition of new baking equipment, production will almost double to 65 tons per week.

6. Costa's coffee is made by professional baristas on the spot by hand, rather than using automated coffee machines like other coffee chains.

7. No matter whether it is any kind of Costa coffee, customers can choose products that match the Fair Trade Plan. By working with Caf é direct, we also provide our customers with all the traditional Earl Grey teas served by Teadirect.