Costa Coffee losses mount as Coca-Cola searches for a new buyer
Losses at beleaguered Costa Coffee have more than doubled as customers flocked to cut-price rivals instead.
Updated: 11:35 GMT, 1 January 2026
Losses at beleaguered Costa Coffee have more than doubled as customers flocked to cut-price rivals instead.
The group's latest accounts filed with Companies House showed its operating loss widened from £5.8m in 2023 to £13.5m in the year to December 2024.
It said this was 'primarily driven by challenging conditions with soft footfall and growth of value-led competitors.'
The group, which was founded by two Italian brothers Bruno and Sergio Costa in London in 1971 and now operates 2,700 cafes in the UK and Ireland, said sales rose 1 per cent to £1.2bn over the same period.
Struggles: The high street coffee chain faces hot competition from Greggs, Pret and a number of newer brands
Costa has faced hot competition from cheaper firm Greggs in recent years, while rival Pret also launched a meal deal to appeal to cost-conscious consumers last year.
It has also been challenged by newer and trendier brands, such as Blank Street and Black Sheep Coffee, which sell products such as flavoured matcha lattes that are popular with Gen Z consumers.
Coffee chains are also grappling with higher costs of doing business, including higher National Insurance contributions and wages, plus stubborn inflation on the price of coffee beans.
Owner Coca-Cola is thought to be looking to sell the chain for £2bn - far less than the £3.9bn it paid to purchase it in 2018 from previous owner Whitbread.
But talks with the preferred bidder, TDR Capital - the private equity owner of grocer supermarket - are thought to have hit a wall over the price, according to the Financial Times.
In July, Coca-Cola chief executive James Quincey admitted that its Costa acquisition had 'not quite delivered' and was 'not where we wanted it to be from an investment hypothesis point of view'.