SandpiperCI, the Channel Islands’ largest retailer, plans to open more than 70 Costa Coffee outlets in central and southern Spain.
The first outlet under the franchise agreement is planned to open at the start of next year.
Earlier this year, M&C Report revealed that Costa had teamed up with airport food & beverage operator Airfoods, a Grupo Enasui subsidiary, to make its debut in Spain at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport.
Costa opens on average 150 international stores every year and currently operates c1,750 sites across 29 countries outside of the UK.
Costa Coffee’s European franchise director Ralph Llanwarne said: “This is an important milestone on Costa’s journey to become the world’s most loved coffee brand. Costa continues to grow in to new markets integrating local tastes and preference, in order to continually deliver an unbeatable coffee experience to customers across the world. We are looking forward to working with SandpiperCl in order to deliver our high standards and quality coffee within Spain.”
Sandpiper chief executive Tony O’Neill said: “This will be our first franchise outside the Channel Islands. It’s a great opportunity to use the expertise of our management team and we’re looking forward to trading in a much larger market place. We have gained a reputation as one of the world’s leading franchise operators. Our Costa Coffee franchise has certainly been a success and has seen rapid growth since we opened our first store back in 2008. We set ourselves high standards and that has paid off as has been indicated by the significant growth we have achieved year-on-year. A measure of that success is that we have always achieved some of the highest scores in Costa Coffee’s quarterly ‘mystery shop’ scheme.”
