Costa comes to Serbia
The Costa coffee bar chain is to open its first store in Serbia. The Whitbread owned company has signed a contract with Serbian retailer Delta Sport and aims to have 70 Costa stores in place within the next five years. As franchise partner of Costa, Delta Sport will open outlets in Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Slovenia, also. By the end of 2007 the first nine new Costa stores should be open in Belgrade and Novi Sad.

Pancake purveyor plans to gobble up Applebee’s
International House of Pancakes (IHOP) has moved to buy rival restaurant chain Applebee’s in a $2.1b (£1.02b) deal. Applebee’s has been on the market since February and IHOP’s Julia Stewart, herself a former Applebee’s employee, said the company would adapt Applebee’s strategy to suit its own going forward.

Burger King to increase size in Hong Kong
Burger King is planning to add further meat to its Hong Kong operation with 40 more outlets during the next five years. It also plans to expand its presence in Asia. The company currently has only three Burger King restaurants in Hong Kong, two of which are at the Island’s International airport. The company as a whole is looking to grow at a rate of 300 to 400 outlets globally each year and hopes to achieve 80% of future growth through international expansion.

InterContinental comes to Siberian capital
InterContinental Hotels Group has signed a management agreement for a Holiday Inn in Siberia’s capital, Novosibirsk, in partnership with Clover Group, a Moscow property company. The hotel will have 200-bedrooms when it opens in December 2009 and is located close to the Novosibirsk exhibition and conference centre.

By Chris Druce

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