MONTE CARLO, Principality of Monaco – The coffee community mourn the passing away of Sergio Costa, who founded in 1971, together with its brother Bruno, Costa Coffee, the world’s second-largest coffeehouse chain behind Starbucks.
Costa died on on 24 March 2022 in his home in Monte Carlo. He is survived by his daughter Monica, son Marco and daughter Tania and his nine grandchildren. He was born on 23 April 1949 in Baselica, a small village in the Parma province, in Italy.
Sergio Costa founded Costa in 1971. He set up his own roastery with his father, Oreste Costa, in Fenchurch Street.
He was later joined by his brother Bruno. CB Costa Brothers Coffee Company was incorporated 28th July 1976 and Bruno left Costa by 1979 to open his own company La Porcellana
Costa branched out to retailing coffee in 1978, when their first store opened in Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, England.
In 1995, the business was acquired by Whitbread to become a subsidiary of Whitbread Company. In 2009 Costa celebrated the opening of their 1000th store in Cardiff.
In 2010 they acquired ‘Coffee Heaven’, which had a strong presence in central and eastern Europe, for £36m adding another 79 stores.
By the end of 2010 the company had overtaken Starbucks in the UK, taking 37.6% of the market share based on turnover.
In 2018, Coca-Cola bought Costa from Whitebread for £3.9bn. The data portal Statistica reports that Costa has 2422 stores in the UK and 3821 across the world.
