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Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola is buying the British multinational coffeehouse company Costa Coffee from owner Whitbread in a deal worth £3.9bn.
Costa Coffee is already the second largest coffeehouse chain in the world in a global coffee shop market that is worth $165bn.
Alison Brittain, the chief executive of Whitbread, said the chain had been approached by a number of potential buyers but Coke’s desire to snap up the 4,000-store chain was a ‘dream deal’ for investors and a ‘win-win’ for everyone.
Alison believes that the fizzy beverage mogul would use Costa to create ‘ready to drink, cold brew coffees’ because it has none in its range.
She said: “You could see Costa absolutely everywhere, in vending machines, hotels, restaurants, pubs, cafes – in all the places you see Coke today.”
Whitbread will be seeking shareholder approval for the deal next month.
Costa has more than 2,400 UK coffee shops, as well as some 1,400 outlets in 31 overseas markets and Costa Express has 8,237 vending machines worldwide.
In the kingdom alone there are more than 30 outlets, including one at Bahrain International Airport, under the Jawad Business Group franchise umbrella.
The Bahrain company has declined to comment about the development.
Jawad has been in the news in recent days with reports in our sister newspaper, the Gulf Daily News that its supermarket in Nuwaidrat had closed. To dismiss rumours circulating, the group made its position clear on social media that its main operation at Jawad Dome in Barbar was ‘open as usual’.
