The cloud is the future for coffee brand’s expansion, director tells business leaders
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by ANDREW GIBBS e: news@businessmk.co.uk
TECHNICAL innovation is to underpin the worldwide expansion of Costa Coffee’s Express division following its acquisition from Whitbread by Coca Cola last year.
With 10,000 machines in the UK and a further 1,000 new machines installed in UK garages, retailers, convenience stores and leisure establishments each year – and more across the world – Costa Express is set to see continued growth.
Its global operations director Nick Orrin outlined the brand’s plans and direction in a presentation to senior business leaders in Milton Keynes. Innovation is key for the brand, he said.
Speaking at a forum organised by Milton Keynes Business Leaders Partnership, Mr Orrin said that technology development will drive the expansion of the dominant coffee chain’s Express division.
Part of a global GRID integration hub and platform, Costa Express’ SMART machines are uniquely integrated providing telemetry data feedback on anything from milk levels to machine usage.
“Through real-time data collection and an end-to-end IoT service, each Costa Express concession across the globe is connected via a cloud,” Mr Orrin said. “From this we can enable new screen interactions for customers, and remotely monitor.
“Investment in technology has given us the edge over our competitors and enabled us to keep machine downtime to an absolute minimum.”
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Owner Coca Cola as an “ambitious” plan to develop the wider Costa Coffee brand, he added. “Coca Cola have a global ambition to be a total beverage company. They want to create a total coffee platform,” he told the meeting.
MKBLP members quizzed Mr Orrin on Costa Express’ sustainability and environmental initiatives and heard more on the brand’s Costa Foundation, a charity which aims to relieve poverty and improve the life chances of boys and girls in coffee-growing communities across the globe.
