Facts about Costa Coffee and Whitbread

Did you know…..

Costa is now officially the largest and fastest growing coffee shop chain in the UK.  It opened its 1000th milestone store in March 2008 in Moscow.

In 2007/08, Costa reported turnover up 23.5% to £216.3 million, like for like sales up by 6.5% and profits of £20.8 million up 16.9%.

Costa was founded by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa in 1971. With 785 stores in the UK and over 300 internationally, Costa has enjoyed a remarkable period of growth since it opened its first store. It now operates in 24 countries.

Costa Coffee is the first UK coffee shop chain to commit sourcing Rainforest Alliance Certified Coffee.

Costa set up a registered charity (no.327489) in 2006 called 'The Costa Foundation' to give something back to the communities within the countries from which Costa sources its coffee beans.

Costa is part of the Whitbread family of brands.

About Whitbread:

Whitbread PLC is the UK's largest hotel and restaurant company operating market-leading businesses in the budget hotels and restaurant sectors. Its brands include Premier Inn, Beefeater, Table Table, Brewers Fayre, Taybarns and Costa Coffee.

Whitbread PLC employs over 33,000 people and serves 8.5 million customers every month in its 1500 outlets across the UK.

In the financial year ending 28th February 2008, Whitbread PLC reported an 11.3% increase in Group Revenue to £1.18 billion and 26.3% increase in Pre-tax Profit to £210.3 million.

Whitbread PLC is a FTSE 100 company, listed on the London Stock Exchange. It is also a member of the FTSE4Good Index. In August 2008, Whitbread's market capitalization was circa £2.0 billion.