Costa Coffee opens its first stores in Japan
August 5 - 2023
Coffee Geography Magazine
UK’s major coffee chain Costa Coffee has opened its first store Japan in partnership with Sojitz Royal Cafe between Sojitz Corporation and Royal Holdings. Costa Coffee, is expanding its brand globaly throughout Asia as Japan is now seen as key market with its first store in the Shibuya district, featuring the brand’s signature design Red and Costa Pink accents.
The store opening will be followed by the brand’s second store in Otemachi in September and its flagship store’s launch in Ginza the following month. Sojitz Royal Cafe, established in January, acquired the exclusive franchise rights of Costa Coffee in Japan earlier this year.
Costa Coffee was founded in London in 1971 by Sergio Costa as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. It was acquired by Whitbread in 1995, then sold to The Coca-Cola Company in January 2019 in a deal worth $4.9 billion, and has grown to 4,000 stores across 31 countries and 18,412 employees. The business has 2,121 UK restaurants, over 6,000 Costa Express vending facilities and a further 1,280 outlets overseas, including 460 in China. Costa is the second largest coffeehouse chain in the world, and the largest in the UK.
In 2022, Costa Coffee discontinued the Costa Book Awards that Whitbread had started 51 years earlier. At the end of July 2022 Jill McDonald stepped down as CEO of the company, and was succeeded by Philippe Schaillee in April 2023. Costa’s entry in Japan’s market could bring a greater experience for the growing Japanese coffee drinkers who are culturally leaning to drinking tea.