What kind of trends are you seeing from consumers today, regarding coffee-house outlets?
Today’s savvy coffee drinkers are rightly demanding and expect their coffee to be customised to their exact requirements.
It is not unusual for someone to order for a low fat, double vanilla mocha with whipped cream, marshmallows and chocolate flakes on top!
Consumers are also becoming more inquisitive about nutritional information and are looking for a balance of both healthy and indulgent products.
From an Indulgent Chocolate Donut to a Less Than 5% Fat Tuna Salad Sandwich, Costa offers a favorable balance.
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Since 1999, the brand has opened 70 stores in the UAE and many more internationally — but looking specifically at the Emirates, how have your outlets fared over this difficult past year?
Over the past 5 years Costa has seen growth on average of 27% per year.
While this obviously slowed in 2009, it hasn’t stopped our expansion plans. We opened 15 new stores in 2009 and plan to open 10 more over the course of 2010.
Costa reportedly insured chief coffee taster Gennaro Pelliccia’s tongue for £10 million — is this true?
Yes this is true! The heart of Costa is our coffee excellence; we serve 108 million cups of coffee around the world each year and, as our Master of Coffee, Gennaro is responsible for ensuring that Costa maintains the highest standard for every cup we produce.
He personally tastes every single batch of raw coffee beans at the Costa roastery in London, before they are roasted and shipped to countries around the world.
Clearly he is a key component in delivering consistently great coffee to our customers so we took out the policy with Lloyd’s of London to protect against any damage to his taste buds.
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