Caffè Nero opened nine new stores in the UK during its first quarter, alongside nine internationally | Photo credit: Alexander London

UK-based Caffè Nero has credited its store refurbishment programme, delivery roll-out and iced coffee range as strongly contributing to its promising first quarter. 
 

The coffee chain achieved 13.5% year-on-year sales growth in the UK in the three months ended 31 August 2023, alongside 19% year-on-year sales growth at group level. 

Caffè Nero opened nine net new stores in the UK during the period to reach 620 outlets. The coffee chain also opened nine net new sites across its nine international markets and has a ‘very strong’ pipeline of new stores expected to open in its second quarter. 

London-based Caffè Nero also refurbished over 20 UK sites in its first quarter as part of a group-level store refurbishment programme. A further 100 outlets are set to be renovated by the end of May 2024. 

The coffee chain also reported sustained momentum in delivery sales and app-based transactions following strong performances in both channels last year. 

Caffè Nero, which offers delivery in the UK via Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats, said the channel now accounts for 3% of its overall sales. Additionally, over 32% of all UK store transactions are currently made via the Nero App, which has more than two million members.  

The Nero App is available across the coffee chain’s 10 markets, including the US, Sweden, Turkey and Poland, where it operates as Green Caffè Nero.  

“Results in our first quarter were very encouraging across the Group and enabled our financial year to get off to a strong start. Despite problematic weather in the UK last summer, our summer iced drinks campaign there was very successful, with our ‘coffee over ice’ range performing particularly strongly at 17.4% like-for-like sales. Despite continuing inflation, I’m optimistic that we can have a good second quarter,” said Gerry Ford, Founder and CEO, Caffè Nero Group. 

In August 2023, Caffè Nero Group, which also operates the Coffee#1 and Harris + Hoole coffee chains in the UK, reported full-year sales at 112% of pre-pandemic levels.