Costa coffee is set to be bought by Coca-Cola as the current owner, Whitbread sell for £3.9bn

Having bought Costa in 1995 for just £19m, Whitbread have chosen a straight sale rather than the intended spin off as a separate firm, which was more profitable for the coffee chain that is now the biggest in the UK.

Since it’s purchase in 1995, the coffee chain has grown from just 39 outlets to more than 2,400 UK coffee shops as well as another 1,400 international outlets in 31 countries. This is alongside the Costa Express which has 8,237 vending machines worldwide.

This purchase by Coca-Cola sees the introduction of coffee into their range, which is something they don’t currently have. As well as being the largest UK coffee chain, Costa is also the world’s second largest and with the out-of-home coffee market’s worth of £6.3bn a year in the UK alone, this new area for Coca-Cola looks set to boom.