All about Costa coffee

Costa Coffee is one of the biggest coffee chains in the world. Almost every large town in the UK has a Costa shop, and the chain of coffee-shops serves thousands of people every day. Find out all about this British/Italian coffee shop here.

The history of Costa coffee

Background
Costa grew from a coffee roastery, which was set up in the Lambeth area of London in 1971.
This supplied caterers and coffee shops in the area with the slow roasted mocha Italian blend that was Costa's speciality.
Bruno and Sergio Costa, the brothers who set the company up, soon developed their vision, and their first retail outlet was opened in 1978 in Vauxhall Bridge Road, London. Development
In 1995, the Costa chain was acquired by Whitbread, the large hotel and restaurant company.
This has helped them grow, making Costa the biggest coffee chain in the UK and the second biggest in the world - after Starbucks.
Indeed, while the UK may be Costa's core market, they have chains in 28 countries.
In fact, the largest Costa shop is located in Dubai and seats over 320 people.
Wherever you are in the world, any Costa store will be easily recognisable thanks to the logo - a stylised coffee bean that has been synonymous with the brand for many years.

Other developments in Costa coffee

Costa coffee nowadays
Since 2006, Costa has sponsored the Costa Book Awards, designed to celebrate literary merit and good storytelling.
As many Costa stores can be found in Waterstones book shops, sponsoring this award ceremony makes a lot of sense.
Costa have also recently began to use coffee beans sourced solely from farms certified by the Rainforest Alliance.
This helps to ensure that farmers get a fair price and works to reduce the environmental impact of farming.
Costa have also began to publish the nutritional info about all their drinks and food.
They are working with the Food Standards Agency to reduce the amount of salt and fat in their products, without affecting the flavour.
Like many retailers, Costa have introduced a Costa club card.
This means regular customers can collect points and use them to save money on future purchases.
Final word
Ever since the company was created, people seeking Costa Coffee jobs have been professionally trained in the art of coffee making.
This has helped them become the biggest chain of coffee stores in the UK.