More than 400 Caffè Nero stores in the UK will be available on the Just Eat delivery platform | Photo credit: Caffè Nero

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Caffè Nero has announced a new partnership with delivery platform Just Eat that will expand the company’s growing delivery offer in the UK.

According to the UK-based coffee chain, delivery sales were up 81% in the last six months of 2021 compared with the previous year.

Caffè Nero, which first launched a delivery option in the UK at the onset of the pandemic in 2020, is hoping to tap into Just Eat’s significant reach, which currently facilitates delivery to 97% of UK postcodes.  

More than 400 Caffè Nero stores in the UK will be available on the delivery platform, offering a menu that includes the coffee chain's hot beverages and food.

A quarter (24%) of UK consumers surveyed in World Coffee Portal’s Project Café UK 2022 report indicated they would be open to beverage delivery if the option were more readily available.

The partnership forms part of Caffè Nero’s New Channels Strategy which also aims to increase revenue outside of its stores through at-home coffee products and wider retail partnerships with Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Amazon.

“Just Eat is a fantastic and exciting partnership for us and we’re delighted to be working with them. We have seen high demand from customers for our products away from our stores, and this partnership allows us to continue to expand those channels. Alongside our resumed new store opening programme, our new channels are a hugely important part of our growth strategy post pandemic. This partnership will allow us to meet the demands of our customers and reach a significant number of people in their own home,” said Will Stratton-Morris, CEO, Caffè Nero UK.

A growing number of operators have invested in beverage delivery in the last few years, including Costa Coffee, which in February 2021 partnered with Deliveroo to launch a trial at 500 of its UK stores. Meanwhile, Greggs significantly expanded its third-party delivery partnership with Just Eat to 1,000 stores last year.

Founded in 1997 by Gerry Ford, The Nero Group, which controls the Coffee#1, Harris+Hoole and Aroma coffee chains, operates more than 1,000 stores in ten countries around the world, including 650 Caffè Nero stores in the UK. 

The coffee chain began its ‘post-Covid’ store openings programme in the UK in March 2022 with two new stores at Stansted and Belfast airports.

Reporting its half-year results in late-February, Caffè Nero said it was trading at 90% of pre-Covid levels, with sales between June and November 2021 rising 211% to £135.7m ($184.2) compared to the same period in 2020. An existing partnership with the UberEats delivery partnership generated £3.4m ($4.6m) of revenue in that period, with its at-home coffee offer achieving sales of £1.3m ($1.8m).