In Poland, the business continued to suffer from a weak consumer environment and from the VAT rise on milk based drinks which was introduced on 1st April 2013.
Costa has commenced a programme of opening trial stores in France.
The first store opened on 16th October, with a further five stores planned to open between now and the year end.
Costa Asia
Costa Asia had a good performance with system sales rising by 52.9% and the addition of 35 net new stores during this period. In China it delivered like for like system sales growth of 5.5% during the first half and opened 30 net new stores taking our total stores in China to 283.
Costa recently marked the milestone of 1,000 international stores with a new coffee shop in Bangkok.
