Costa is to trial a new ‘finer coffee’ concept at a store in Covent Garden, as it seeks to speed up its rate of innovation.
New Whitbread chief executive Alison Brittain said the test store in Shelton Street would offer “three new origin coffees and three new brewing techniques on site” and was aimed at “building our coffee credentials, in response to increasing demand from customers”. The site is due to relaunch in the next few months.
Brittain said in order to hit the target of achieving £2.5bn of system sales from Costa by 2020 the company needed to capitalise on growth opportunities, and that food was a key area. She said alongside a rollout of the Costa Fresco model there would be a focus on widening the food offer across the estate. She said the brand needed to capitalise more on the opportunities for food sales at lunchtime and in afternoons.
She said a better digital experience was key to engaging with consumers and confirmed that Costa Collect would be extended to more London stores later this year.
Alternative channels will be explored to drive growth, she said, with drive-through, retail park and travel opportunities, all key areas for focus.
She said: “We have remodelled and retested our UK network plans in the light of changing trends and a much more competitive market. It’s clear there are good opportunities for growth – not just to the 2,500 stores we need but beyond.
“There has been unprecedented growth in the UK coffee shop market in the last two decades and has fast become the place of choice for people to meet and work. There is a growing demand for quality coffee and customers are drinking more coffee than ever before. But coffee consumption per capita in the UK is still relatively low compared to other countries leaving plenty of room for growth.
“As the UK’s favourite coffee shop Costa is well placed to take advantage of these growth opportunities but we also need to continually improve our stores, our formats, our food offering and look for new and better ways to serve our customers and maintain our brand leadership.
“Convenience and coffee quality remain essential but customers are becoming more sophisticated and wanting more – fresher and healthier food, faster service, better loyalty schemes and a greater digital experience are all becoming increasingly important in driving customer satisfaction and growing sales.
“To meet our demands we will need to speed up our rate of innovation. Our new Fresco concept, launched in December centred on fresh, healthy food and it has been really successful. The aim now is to provide a platform to broaden our food range and quality credentials and the opportunity to widen our product offering across all our shops in the UK.
“Our fast format Pronto facilitates coffee on the go and is based on our ability to offer fast, friendly service in city locations where speed is of the essence. We are also focussed on our speed of service across all our coffee shops and introducing new tills and ovens to speed up processes.
