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Costa Coffee is a British multinational coffee-house company headquartered in the UK and with outlets across Britain, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.

Costa’s operations include nearly 4,000 retail outlets, its Costa Express vending operation, for-home coffee formats and a roastery.

It was acquired by the Whitbread Group in 1995 and, towards the end of its spell under Whitbread’s ownership, the emphasis increasingly turned to its convenience channel under the name Costa Express. This side of the business emerged from Whitbread’s £59.5 million acquisition of Coffee Nation and, by 2018, covered more than 8,000 Costa Express machines in eight different countries serving consumers the same coffee as Costa’s stores in convenience, travel and forecourt locations.

Costa was spun off by Whitbread in April 2018 and then, in August, Coca-Cola announced plans to pay £3.9 billion for the business.