Costa Set to Boost Capacity to Meet Future Demand

Costa, the UK's favourite coffee shop, today announced that it will be building a brand new roastery to support its national and international growth ambitions. The new roastery will be built in Basildon and will operate in conjunction with Costa's existing roastery in Lambeth, reinforcing Costa's British heritage and its ongoing commitment to locating its roasting operations in the UK.

Quality coffee is driving customer demand, meaning that Costa's Lambeth roastery on Old Paradise Street, SE11 (established by the Costa brothers in 1984) is roasting coffee 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Costa has roasted its much-loved premium Mocha Italia blend in Lambeth for more than 30 years and the new roastery in Basildon will help to meet expected demand in 2020 and beyond.

Costa will be investing an estimated £36 million in its new site in Basildon, building a state of the art facility to ensure the highest standards of quality are maintained across its two roasteries.

The UK is the hub of Costa's national and international business. Unprocessed coffee beans from Rainforest Alliance1 certified growers are shipped from Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Guatemala and Vietnam to Tilbury Docks in Essex, before being transported to Costa's Lambeth roastery. Costa's new roastery in Basildon, 14 miles from Tilbury Docks, will be strategically important – enhancing operational efficiency as well as roasting capacity.

Christopher Rogers, Managing Director for Costa, said:

"Costa is growing and to meet strong customer demand we need to increase our coffee roasting capacity. Our existing Lambeth site does not have the long-term roasting capacity to cater for our increasing UK and international demand. The solution is to build a second roastery in the London area, which will continue to produce the high quality coffee our customers love in the quantity the business requires."

The new roastery will produce the same Mocha Italia blend created by the Costa Brothers at the Lambeth roastery since 1971. Costa's current roastery capacity is 11,000 tonnes but the new roastery alone will have the ability to produce 45,000 tonnes – helping to supply the 464 million cups of coffee Costa customers consumed last year.

Gennaro Pelliccia, Master of Coffee at Costa, said:

"My job is to oversee the roasting process, and, most importantly, ensure Costa's Mocha Italia and Old Paradise Street blends retain the same great taste as the Costa brothers' coffee, first produced in 1971. The quality of our beans gives our coffee the unique flavour – setting us apart from the competition and making us the UK's favourite coffee shop. We are immensely proud of our coffee and our heritage which is why we have worked so hard to ensure our new roastery will continue to meet our high standards.

"We are investing an estimated £36 million in a state of the art new roastery to increase our capacity for future customer demand and to maintain the important traditions that have built Costa to be the success it is today."

Costa is projected to grow significantly over the next five years, increasing demand for its coffee. For its full-year results, Costa announced a 17.9% lift in sales and a new growth target – boosting Costa system sales from £1.4bn in 2014/15 to £2.5bn in 2020.

Gennaro Pelliccia continued: "We treat our coffee with care and attention – slow roasting our beans to lock in Costa's unique aroma and the coffee's oils, which are only released when the Barista grinds the beans.

"At our roastery, roasting is only the first part of the process – after that we must make sure the coffee is perfectly prepared. This is where our rigorous testing comes in – checking everything from the beans' moisture content to their size and my favourite part – the cupping. Cupping is where we taste the coffee (the reason why I had my tongue insured for £10 million), it has to be just right to be approved and distributed to our stores across the UK and around the world.

"When our new roastery opens in 2017, we will have a cutting-edge roastery supplying the best quality, from bean to cup, right here in the UK."

At the end of June Basildon District Council's Planning Committee unanimously resolved to grant planning permission. The site for the new roastery is on Christopher Martin Road in Basildon and is a former Visteon automotive plant. The brand new and purpose-designed roastery is being developed for Costa by Prologis, the leading global industrial and logistics buildings business.

The new roastery is scheduled to open in early 2017.

ENDS

Media contacts Ben Copithorne or Ella Paterson at Camargue on 020 7636 7366 / bcopithorne@camarguepr.com / epaterson@camarguepr.com

Notes to Editors:

Founded in London by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa in 1971, Costa is the UK's favourite coffee shop, having been awarded "Best Branded Coffee Shop Chain in the UK and Ireland" by Allegra Strategies for five years running (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 & November 2014).

With over 1,968 coffee shops in the UK and more than 1,157 shops in 29 overseas markets, Costa has diversified into both the at-home and gourmet self-serve markets. There are now more than 4,086 Costa Express self-serve machines.

In the UK Costa employs over 15,000 people and creates around 1,500 jobs each year.

Costa is committed to looking after coffee-growers. That's why we've established The Costa Foundation, a registered charity. The Costa Foundation's aims are to relieve poverty, advance education and the health and environment of coffee-growing communities around the world. So far, The Costa Foundation has funded the building of 46 schools and improved the social and economic welfare of coffee-growing communities.