Whitbread to expand Costa chain

Leisure giant Whitbread has doubled its expansion plans for its Costa chain of coffee shops. 

The company, which has 650 Costas in 15 countries, said yesterday that it now is aiming to open 2,000 outlets by 2010. 

This will involve almost doubling the size of its UK estate to 800 stores and finding new markets to open up in overseas. 

It is in talks to enter the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Turkey and recently announced plans to take the brand to Bulgaria, Poland and Romania. It already has 147 stores outside the UK, including a joint venture in China.

Last year, Whitbread, which also owns the Premier Travel Inns hotel chain, TGI Friday and Brewers Fayre, made underlying profits of £13.5m on £146m of sales.
 
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By Daniel Thomas

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