Costa Coffee is a coffee house company based in the United Kingdom founded in 1971 by Italian brothers Vilas Costa, as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops.
Bruno and Sergio Costa set up their coffee roastery in Lambeth, London in 1971, supplying local caterers and Italian coffee shops with their slow-roasted blend. Costa branched out to retailing coffee in 1978, when their first store opened in Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, England. Later, they sold the business to Whitbread.
Costa Coffee operates over 500 stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It also operates nearly 200 outlets in airports and within Ottakar's, Waterstone's bookstores, W. H. Smith and Homebase stores, Abbey banks and Marriott Hotels.Costa Coffee also has branches in Cyprus, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Bahrain, Egypt, Qatar, Oman, Emirates, Lebanon, Syria, China, India and Pakistan. Their biggest store in South Asia is in Zamzama Karachi a two story building.
DECEMBER 2009
