Coffee industry news: Starbucks and Costa after both headquarters in London How are they doing now

On September 29th this year, Starbucks China launched its new product FlatWhite at its first Coffee Culture Festival, with a good Chinese name: Fuluibai. Shortly after a week, Costa immediately (and some early March last year) launched the same product, under a different Chinese name, mellow Yibai, and shouted on its Wechat public account with an article entitled "this is the Real Flat White" (suspected).

I heard that last month, two enemies, Pepsi and Coca-Cola, who had been fighting for a century, co-shot a commercial and watched Coca-Cola CEO Muta Kent and Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi sing together in front of the camera, and they had a cute cp feeling (after all, red and blue since ancient times). Earlier, Burger King shook hands and made peace with McDonald's on World Peace Day, which was rejected by the latter (maybe KFC said yes?). These days, it is true love that blackens each other, and there is only a thin line between the sworn enemy and the best friend, and it is not all right to quarrel one second and stay together the next. It is also interesting to watch brands fight for market share.

What I want to talk about today is a pair of fierce rivals in the coffee chain, Starbucks and Costa, both born in the 1970s, the former from the United States, the latter from the United Kingdom, of course, they are not satisfied with the local one-third of the land, and continue to expand their territory around the world.

Starbucks' ambitions for the European market are evident in its move to London last year. After all, the UK is much more attractive to companies than the uncompetitive investment environment in the Netherlands. In fact, after moving its headquarters to London, the coffee chain giant began a series of moves at the end of last year, announcing cooperation with French supermarket groups Casino Restauration and Monoprix, and German food retailer REWE to open stores into supermarkets and hypermarkets affiliated to these groups on a large scale.

According to Starbucks' 2015 results, as of September 27, 2015, the brand had 2362 stores in the EMEA region, of which 842 were in the UK. I don't know how Costa, who is based in the UK, feels when he sees this figure, although it is still a far cry from the number of its more than 1900 stores, but the momentum is something to be reckoned with.

The Daily Telegraph reported at the end of April this year that "most of the battles between British and American companies are won by the US, but Costa is an exception. It beat Starbucks, at least in the UK." Now, however, it seems that perhaps a more realistic situation is that this situation may be rewritten if Costa does not take action in the face of its opponents who conquer cities and territories.

Costa is clearly aware of this problem.

Well, after Starbucks launched its Starbucks Evernings service, which serves hot foods such as baked vegetables and hummus at 4pm every day, Costa recently launched a new store in London called Costa Fresco, which has changed its focus on coffee and plans to sell lunch items such as porridge, spaghetti and salad, which will be promoted nationwide if it works well. Although the head of Costa did not mention rival Starbucks, he said it was "Costa's embrace of a new trend in catering."

The rivalry between the two companies is certainly not limited to this, let alone the European market.

On September 29th this year, Starbucks China launched its new product FlatWhite at its first Coffee Culture Festival, with a good Chinese name: Fuluibai. Shortly after a week, Costa immediately (and some early March last year) launched the same product, under a different Chinese name, mellow Yibai, and shouted on its Wechat public account with an article entitled "this is the Real Flat White" (suspected).

Liang Yuyi, who is the managing director of Costa in Asia, said that next, Costa will also launch an intensive membership award program, as well as cup derivatives. As you know, Starbucks is good at this, always trying to sell everything it can sell, whether it's a Starbucks bear, a Christmas red cup full of tricks, or a membership card.

Source: Tiger sniffing net