Express delivery from Costa

Costa owner Whitbread launched its push into the self-serve coffee market with the acquisition of Coffee Nation for £59.5m.

The company will use the purchase to develop a new brand, called Costa Express, and said it hoped for 3,000 such bars in the UK over the next five years. Coffee Nation has 900 self-serve sites, including at Tesco stores and Moto and Welcome Break services stations.

Whitbread chief executive Andy Harrison, pictured, said: “Customers increasingly want great tasting coffee on the go, which makes the self-serve coffee market very attractive.”

The leisure group’s Costa arm is one of the UK’s largest coffee shop brands with more than 1,200 outlets, as well as a further 650 sites overseas.

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