Costa Coffee To Focus More On Profitability With New Initiatives

Costa Coffee, a UK-based coffee chain, has prioritised its efforts into making its existing retail outlets profitable more than launching new outlets. The coffee chain will shift its focus on renovating its existing outlets and launching new initiatives to generate revenue. Costa Coffee is UK’s largest coffee brand and entered the emerging coffee chain sector of India in 2005 through a partnership with Devyani International. Currently, the coffee chain has over 100 retail outlets across 11 cities in India. Although there are several retail outlets in metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai, Costa’s outlets are more spread out over Tier II cities as well, such as Agra, Pune, Jaipur, Ludhiana and Kochi.

Putting Onus On Profitability 

Although several other International coffee chains are turning their efforts towards extending its footprint in major cities in the country, Costa Coffee’s focus will solely be placed on improving customer experience and focusing on outlets which are already extremely profitable. Speaking to Economic Times about the change in course, Virag Joshi, President and CEO of Devyani International, the master franchisee of Costa Coffee in India, said, “What we have now come to know is that this business can be very profitable for us if we do the right things rather than chasing numbers. We said (to ourselves) let’s do all the corrections of either shutting down shops or relocating them or renovating them.”

Launching New Initiatives

Costa Coffee has launched new initiatives to improve customer experience in its current outlets. Recently, Costa Coffee and Harper Collins, a leading publisher in India, partnered to launch the Beans ‘n’ Books  initiative. As part of the launch, Costa Coffee has plans to establish a Book Club at its retail outlets to give its customers a place to have long reading sessions and also to interact with authors during the “Author Meet n Greet Session”.

During the event for the launch, Joshi noted that the partnership with Harper Collins will allow Costa’s customers to participate in several exclusive events. “This initiative is a testament to the timeless relationship between books and coffee. I am sure that Beans ‘n’ Books will offer coffee aficionados a wonderful selection of coffee with an equally wonderful selection of books,” said Joshi.  

Improved Menu Offerings

Apart from new tie-up and initiatives, Costa Coffee has also launched new beverages as part of its menu. Recently, Costa brought its international best selling coffee, the Flat White, to the Indian market. The premium beverage was one of Costa’s highest selling beverages in its Australian and New Zealand markets.