Soft drink bottler Coca-Cola HBC AG said on Thursday it will launch Costa Coffee products in several markets next year, months after Coca-Cola Co bought the cafe chain from Whitbread in a $5.1 billion deal.
The company, which sells Coca-Cola drinks in 28 countries mostly in Europe, plans to launch Costa Coffee products in at least 10 of those markets, including Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia and Switzerland.
'An Exciting Opportunity'
Coca‑Cola HBC chief executive, Zoran Bogdanovic, said that the move will result in building "genuine value for" the brand and its customers.
"Adding a brand as strong as Costa Coffee to our portfolio will allow us to capture more consumer occasions, to partner even more closely with our customers across all channels and strengthen our ability to address every drinking moment throughout the day.
"Our well-established infrastructure, processes, and capabilities around coffee means that we will hit the ground running with this exciting opportunity," he explained
A Lucrative Segment
Coffee is one of the most lucrative and fast-growing revenue and profit pools within commercial beverages, the cola giant said.
Forecast to grow 4% annually, it is a multi-billion dollar category across Coca‑Cola HBC’s markets.
News by Reuters, edited by ESM. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
