Dunstable, United Kingdom, 2016-May-13 — /EPR Retail News/ — Costa, the nation’s favourite coffee shop, today announces that it will reduce added sugar across its beverage portfolio by 25% by 2020, against a January 2015 benchmark. The announcement, which coincides with the launch of its new Summer drinks menu, is part of a broader commitment by Costa to introduce healthier choices for customers.
Jane Treasure, Head of Food and Beverage Development at Costa says: “Costa always puts customers at the heart of everything we do. We’re committed to providing great tasting choices and have a long-term plan to improve the nutritional balance of our menu”.
As part of this approach Costa has introduced a number of significant changes to its summer drinks menu, launching this week. This includes the nationwide rollout of no added sugar SuperDay Smoothies, constituting one of the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
Alongside this, Costa has introduced a number of healthier menu items. This includes not only the nationwide rollout of SuperDay Smoothies but also the introduction of low-calorie and gluten free alternatives, trials of healthy pots and a further trial roll out of Chop’d salads. Costa also publishes the nutritional information on-shelf and on-counter for food products and provides a countertop summary card with the calorie information of its most popular drinks.
Jane Treasure adds: “We already have a number of products tailored to a range of nutritional and dietary needs and have proactively removed a substantial amount of sugar across our beverage portfolio. Our added sugar reduction commitment is part of a strategy to manage our entire portfolio responsibly to ensure that we provide a nutritionally balanced mix of menu items for our customers”.
To support in meeting its target Costa has worked with an independent, external expert and created a nutritional calculator which allows the brand to assess its food and beverage products. Using this methodology Costa will review each product recipe, against a set pre-determined criteria to determine whether to delist, reformulate or provide an alternative choice for customers.
Founded in London by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa in 1971, our quality coffee was the premium choice for boutique hotels and restaurants across the city. Today we continue to roast the original Mocha Italia recipe in Old Paradise Street, London with our 100% Rainforest Alliance certified coffee remaining at the core of our quality coffee credentials.
With over 2,000 coffee shops in the UK and more than 1,240 in 31 overseas markets, we are the fastest growing coffee shop business in the UK. We’re proud to be the UK’s favourite coffee shop, having been awarded “Best Branded Coffee Shop Chain in the UK and Ireland” by Allegra Strategies for six years running (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 & December 2015).
Our people are the heart of our business and we employ over 30,000 people worldwide, with a target of 5,000 new jobs in the UK by 2020. Last year, we increased Barista pay by c.10%. Our Pay for progression model was introduced in October 2015, and our training rate of £7.20 was launched well ahead of National Living Wage.
As a popular, mainstream food and beverage brand, we can make a positive contribution towards customer health and wellbeing by investing in safe sourcing, new product development and consumer education. Health and wellbeing remains a strategic business focus area and we will continue to evolve our product offer over the coming years. We are working to reduce added sugar in our drinks by 25% by 2020 and will reduce salt in our sandwich range by a further 5% by 2017.
We care about the communities we operate in with our store teams volunteering over 10,000 hours of their time to lend support to over 900 local community projects.
Looking after coffee growers is extremely important to us, which is why we established The Costa Foundation, a registered charity with the aim to relieve poverty, advance education and the health and environment of coffee-growing communities around the world. So far, The Costa Foundation has funded the building of 53 schools and improved the social and economic welfare of coffee-growing communities.
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