After months of speculation regarding a potential sale, Coca-Cola has confirmed it will retail full ownership of Costa Coffee, according to an interview Chief Financial Officer John Murphy conducted with Bloomberg.
Coca-Cola purchased Costa for about US$5.1 billion in 2018 from Whitbread PLC, but private equity firm TDE Capital were reported to be in discussions to purchase the embattled asset in December 2025.
Murphy told Bloomberg Coca-Cola has “decided to continue to have Costa 100 per cent owned inside [its] portfolio”, however Chinese operations are still under review.
Costa’s operating loss more than doubled to US$18.42 million (£13.5 million) on revenues of US$1.64 billion (£1.2 billion) in 2024 according to accounted filed at the UK Companies House, however Murphy says performance of Costa stores and Costa Express machines remains strong in the home market of the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Costa is the UK’s largest coffee chain and one of the largest in the world. Currently, it operates in more than 4000 retail stores and 14,000 ‘smart café’ vending machines in more than 30 countries.
