Whitbread-owned coffee chain Costa Coffee has confirmed it will be opening in branches of Waitrose food stores from next month. The new Costa concessions will appear in South Woodford, Essex, Godalming, Surrey, and Chichester, West Sussex.
Waitrose's parent company, John Lewis, has agreed the three pilot Costa outlets will open with the potential for further expansion should the partnership be profitable for both parties. There are currently 143 Waitrose branches in the South of England, East Anglia, the Midlands and Wales.
A Whitbread spokesman said there were "no concrete plans to expand further, but both parties would examine future opportunities".
Costa already operates about 90 concession outlets in branches of Abbey National, Waterstone's, Ottakar's, WH Smith, Homebase and Virgin Megastores, as well as the London Eye and other attractions run by Tussauds Group.
Whitbread, which claims Costa is the UK's most successful coffee-shop brand, wouldn't reveal how much the new contract was worth. A spokesman said Costa was "a very small part" of Whitbread's business.
The restaurant and hotel group claims Costa will make operating profits of £10m over the next financial year.
Justin Clarke, Costa's head of concessions development, said: "Waitrose has a close customer profile to Costa's and this deal will give us a great opportunity to continue the growth of the Costa brand throughout the UK."