LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – Whitbread owned Costa Coffee today released its financial results for the year to 2 March 2017, reporting a 10.7% global sales growth and £1.2 billion in revenue.  Sales in the UK market grew by 10% to reach over £1 billion, however like-for-like sales have dropped to 2%, compared with 2.9% the previous year.
 
Although the company has seen an increase in revenue, this has been attributed to the opening of 255 new stores worldwide and the accelerated roll-out of Costa Express machines, adding over 1,500 new units.
 
Whitbread Chief Executive, Alison Brittain stated that although Costa will ‘remain cautious and expect a tougher consumer environment than last year’, the focus will be on delivering finer coffee concepts, fresher food offers and expansion in the Chinese market in order to drive the company’s sales growth.
 
‘We are innovating to drive our sales growth and are pleased with the investment we are making to introduce 'finer' coffee concepts, leveraging our new state of the art Roastery and delivering fresher food that our customers will enjoy later this year. China remains an exciting platform of growth for Costa and we have a clear plan to enhance our business,’ commented Brittain.
 
Costa Coffee currently operate over 3,000 stores worldwide, with more than 2,000 in the UK and over 400 in China.