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Coca-Cola to buy Costa coffee for £3.9bn
- ChrisArchitect 8y agoInteresting move, and interesting infographic there about chains in Europe and US. Noted McCafe doesn't register in US stats, but maybe that's because McDonald's coffee (no small play) is really inside the restaurants and McCafe was the route in the EU for shop sizes etc
- stuartmalcolm 8y agoAm I the only one that is noticing a lot of BBC articles reaching HN frontpage that have nothing to do with tech?
- GunlogAlm 8y agoHN is for more than tech.
- aerique 8y agoIt goes in cycles. If there's a good article from a new or irregular (for HN) site, you'll see a lot more articles from thast site show up on the frontpage.
- simion314 8y agoAlso no Agree on our tracking to read the article on BBC News, this popups makes me most of the time not read the article.
- meigwilym 8y agoPaul Graham says it's for "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- stuartmalcolm 8y agoAlso "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."
- nailer 8y agoIt's a business article. HN is also about commerce.
- a_imho 8y agoIndeed, consider this submission history for example https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=MiriamWeiner https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=MiriamWeiner As noted, it is not against the guidelines though. Personally, I just flag them.
- baxtr 8y agoWhen I lived in the states a friend of mine always used to say: “Starbucks sells fat and sugar to people, so their mainly competing against McDonalds” That made a lot of sense to me, and I could understand much better why they would introduce McCafes. Thus I think that this is probably a smart move although a bit late...
- chrisseaton 8y agoI think Costa does more normal teas and coffees rather than milkshakes or whatever you're referring to.
- cs02rm0 8y agoCosta were in the news for selling a coffee with more calories in it than a double cheeseburger. But then McDonalds, I think, already sell more coffee than anyone else in the UK, so I guess they're converging from both directions.
- Steve44 8y agoI don't have sales figures but a lot of people I know who travel a lot say that, in the UK at least, the McDonalds is pretty good. It's certainly their favourite balance with price and quality, these are proper black coffee drinkers too, not the bucket of sugar & cream types.
- mgkimsal 8y agosome of my "just black coffee" friends tell me the same thing - mcdonalds coffee is a good combination of taste and value. they all prefer something else, but mcd ends up being the 'go to' because it's known, it's not bad, and doesn't cost too much (which, typing that out, is probably the same for many of their menu items - not 'best in class', but a decent enough product).
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- rdl 8y agoI’m kind of surprised post-sales tax nexus Amazon hasn’t bought a coffee chain yet. Starbucks might be too big to do comfortably, but a combination of some higher end local brands (Intelligentsia, Philz, etc) aggregated into some overarching metabrand would be interesting. Let the cafes run everything as they have, with infinite capital available, and focus on providing additional value added services on premise (obviously lockers but maybe some next-gen amazon services). Philz would almost make sense if they could put 1Gbps connectivity into AWS and specifically base the performance of the deal on AWS signups.
- arnon 8y agoI suspect they might end up buying Starbucks
- krn 8y agoStarbucks would nicely fit with Whole Foods and Landmark Theaters, both already owned by Amazon and targeting American upper-middle class.
- dawhizkid 8y agoThe Amazon bookstores have a coffee shop inside them
- giancarlostoro 8y agoI had no idea that was a thing till now. I wish they'd open more up, looks like they only have a handful. I keep seeing book stores close in some locations and then instead of a new book store a clothing store opens up instead. I wish Amazon would open up more book stores, maybe where another one has failed it could be an opportunity to take said space and make really nice book stores. I don't really want to see Amazon become more of a giant sadly, but I hate seeing book stores disappear.
- ben1040 8y agoThere's already a fairly quiet family-owned company that's been aggregating coffee chains and coffee roasters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAB_Holding_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAB_Holding_Company They've got Peets, Mighty Leaf, Intelligentsia, Stumptown, and Caribou. They also have the Espresso House chain in the Nordics, Krispy Kreme, Panera, and Einstein Bagels. Keurig is also under their umbrella, as are a bunch of other coffee roasters, and other consumer products.
- onetimemanytime 8y agoCoca Cola...does it sell that colored water with sugar? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Coca-Cola_brands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Coca-Cola_brands Gotta love them as a company, if people start buying pet rocks, they'll invest in them. Always moving with the times
- jfaioif3 8y agoBe careful man, you could cut yourself on that edge.
- ystrdytmrrw 8y agoCost has the worst coffee.
- JulianMorrison 8y agoCosta has always felt to me an also ran between the coffee milkshake chain Starbucks and the slightly more serious Caffe Nero. I wonder what Coca Cola plans to do with it?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Nursie 8y ago> Costa has always felt to me an also ran ... But appears to be the largest coffee chain in Europe, in terms of branches and revenue, from what I could find.
- kristianc 8y agoNot as weird a fit as it might seem. Coca-Cola's Ready To Drink coffee brand in Japan, Georgia Coffee, is incredibly profitable (accounts for around 12% of Coca-Cola's global profit, despite only really being sold in Japan.) https://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/georgia-coffee-is-the-worlds-highest-grossing--ready-to-drink-co https://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/georgia-coffee-is-t...
- fuzzymooples 8y agoStrongly recommend the bizarre Twin Peaks ads they made with the cast in the 90s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3acm7j9k_1w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3acm7j9k_1w
- mjal 8y agoI'm concerned with the continual buyout of large established UK companies by US ones. It's happened a lot in the past ~10 years, most notably Cadbury's, and not only are there tax implications, but the standard of product seems to drop to the lowest acceptable while attempting to keep the same prices. There's also the issue with business ethics of the parent company, which tend to be rather different than the UK.
- dazc 8y agoFair point on Cadbury but to make Costa's coffee any worse is going to be a bit of a challenge.
- keiferski 8y agoCosta is still dramatically better than Dunkin Donuts, for example.
- jameskegel 8y agoI’d be curious to see the data upon which you base this false assertion.
- keiferski 8y agoOf course it’s ultimately my opinion, but Dunkin Donuts has awful coffee and always has. Anyone with an appreciation for coffee would likely agree.
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- lghh 8y agoI think that anyone with appreciate for coffee would understand certain coffee has a time and a place, even coffee from big chain coffee places or restaurants.
- deleted 8y ago
- AJRF 8y agoDo american coffee chains do things like cappuchino, latte, flat white, etc? Or is it mostly black filter coffee?
- mikekchar 8y agoFlat white is (or at least was) an Australian thing. Never seen it anywhere else (though I suppose it might be spreading). But, Starbucks has everything else (and then some).
- AJRF 8y agoI thought Flat White was a London thing. I know it originated from Australia, but its well known as being the overpriced banker/technology worker/lawyer/well paid person drink in London. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flat-White-Economy-Douglas-McWilliams/dp/0715649531 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flat-White-Economy-Douglas-McWillia...
- andrewingram 8y agoIf you order a latte from a big chain, half the time you end up with a flat white anyway.
- mikekchar 8y agoI was living in London only 3 or 4 years ago. I never saw it! Weird. But I'm a coffee nerd, so probably I never went to the kinds of cafes that serve it. I actually like a proper flat white -- coffee made with milk instead of water. Just never seen it outside of Australia.
- snowwolf 8y agoYou can't have looked very hard. So called "Third Wave" artisanal coffee shops hit London around 13 years ago, mostly started by Australian immigrants bringing with them the "Flat White". The flat white become such a hipster go to drink that by 2010 they were added to the Starbucks menu in London. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_white https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_white
- reustle 8y agoWould it make sense to implement some company size cap that prevents them from buying any more business? CocaCola is big enough...
- andrewingram 8y agoOf the big coffee shop chains in the UK, Costa is actually my preferred one. None of them do great coffee, but Costa has the smoothest flavour which is what I prefer. I also think their paninis and carrot cake beats out the other offerings.
- kingosticks 8y agoCould this be a consequence of the UK's sugar tax and an attempt to diversify as the revenue from traditional Coca-Cola shrinks? I appreciate they have no/low sugar alternate products but they must still have taken a big hit from that legislation.
- gsnedders 8y agoThe Coca-Cola Company only owns 18% of Coca-Cola European Partners, and I'd expect it'd have smaller consequences of the amount of syrup CCEP buys (given some of the movement will be to Diet and Zero).
- tonyedgecombe 8y agoHopefully they will destroy it, the UK is overrun with these mediocre coffee shops.
- sjwright 8y agoIndeed, and Australia demonstrates that it doesn't have to be like that. In most similar verticals we are very similar to either the UK, the US or both. Take McDonalds: incredibly successful fast food shop in Australia. That American success story works here, as does KFC and Domino's. But when Starbucks arrived, it was a hilariously dismal flop because we already had sufficiently good coffee at all of our local non-chain cafes (and exceptionally good coffee at a non trivial subset of them).[1] When Australians stop for a coffee on the way to work, a large number of us are going to a local cafe. We do have chains, but none of them command more than a very small share of the overall coffee market.[2] Ironically, the number one coffee chain in Australia is almost certainly McCafe. And there's reason for that: the McCafe brand was an invention of McDonalds Australia to help their restaurants stay relevant in the Australian market. Because they emphasised quality from day one, the menu was native to Australian tastes, and the restaurants were already popular for their traditional fare, it has been a remarkable success. (McCafe in other countries is often little more than a brand on the cup; in Australia it's a third of the restaurant interior, with its own counter and menu. [3][4][5]) [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FGUkxn5kZQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FGUkxn5kZQ [2] https://www.smartcompany.com.au/growth/aussies-flock-to-local-baristas-as-big-coffee-chains-struggle-to-grind-out-market-share/ https://www.smartcompany.com.au/growth/aussies-flock-to-loca... [3] http://blueskydesigngroup.com.au/project/mcdonalds/ http://blueskydesigngroup.com.au/project/mcdonalds/ [4] http://juicydesign.com.au/project/item/mcdonalds-playground-australia/ http://juicydesign.com.au/project/item/mcdonalds-playground-... [5] https://www.moodiedavittreport.com/sydney-airport-opens-new-mcdonalds-as-t1-dining-offer-takes-shape/ https://www.moodiedavittreport.com/sydney-airport-opens-new-...
- bena 8y agoAm I seriously thinking about going to Australia just to visit a McDonald's now?
- adambowles 8y agoI posted this 2 hours earlier than this submission, same link same title; https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17883826 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17883826
- koolhead17 8y agoHey Costa/coca cola. Please get us a regular size cappuccino glasses. We don't want coffee served in soup bowl out here in India.