- Chobani and Danone’s cold-brew coffee lawsuit enters new phase
- Greggs wants to be everything, everywhere, all at once – and it’s working
- Starbucks’ Back to Starbucks turnaround is gathering pace
- KCOFFEE is changing how customers interact with its KFC in China
- Alimentation Couche-Tard to significantly scale European self-serve coffee network with $8.7bn acquisition
1. Chobani fails in bid to dismiss Danone’s cold-brew coffee lawsuit
A federal court in New York has rejected Chobani’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit alleging copycat labelling on its La Colombe ready-to-drink (RTD) cold brew.
The legal dispute is the latest in a long line of claims between New York-based dairy giant Chobani and key competitor Danone, and relates to similarities in packaging and branding between Chobani’s La Colombe ‘Light Roast’ RTD cold brew and Danone’s older Stok ‘Lighter Roast’ product.
The dispute now moves forward into discovery.
2. Greggs’ all-in growth strategy gets major boost with strong half-year earnings
In March 2026, Greggs CEO Roisin Currie said the business had a “clear formula for long-term success” after delivering £2.1bn ($2.8bn) in annual sales and overtaking Costa Coffee as the UK’s largest overall branded coffee shop operator by outlets.
That formula – essentially more Greggs in more places more of the time – is resonating strongly with price-conscious UK consumers, and heralded a return to profit growth for Greggs in the first half of 2026 after a dip in annual earnings last year.
3. Starbucks is back. Now comes the hard part
Starbucks’ turnaround strategy is delivering stronger sales, rising transactions and the first signs of margin recovery. But with the early gains now banked, Back to Starbucks faces its biggest test yet: turning renewed customer interest into durable global growth.
The performance during the three months ended 28 June 2026 will provide a significant boost to Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, who, just under two years ago, placed Back to Starbucks at the heart of the coffee chain’s revival.
4. Fast-growing KCOFFEE expands influence within Yum China’s vast QSR portfolio
Originally launched as an in-store coffee offer across its KFC stores in 2015, Yum China spun off its proprietary KCOFFEE brand as a standalone coffee shop concept in October 2022.
Nearly four years later, operating both stand-alone outlets and ‘side-by-side’ concessions adjacent to KFC stores, KCOFFEE now has more than 3,300 locations.
But can sustained outlet growth deliver the sales growth Yum China expects?
5. Alimentation Couche-Tard set to become one of Europe’s largest coffee players
Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard has invested heavily to bolster its European coffee offer this year.
In April 2026, the petrol station and convenience store giant installed Eversys Enigma Classic self-serve coffee machines across its 260 Circle K convenience stores in the Baltics, before signing a major supply partnership with Löfbergs, covering over 4,000 European Circle K sites, two months later.
Now, the Québec-based business has made further inroads into Central and Eastern Europe with the $8.7bn acquisition of Poland’s Żabka Group – its largest M&A deal to date.
The agreement looks set to make Couche-Tard one of the largest non-specialist coffee operators in Europe.
