Coca-Cola has agreed to buy the Costa coffee chain for $ 5,1 billion, including debt, to expand and compete with Nestle's Starbucks coffee market, which is growing rapidly worldwide.
The acquisition of nearly 4.000 stores by the British Whitbread pushes the world's largest soft drink company into one of the few positive developments in the sluggish packaged food and beverage industry.
Paying about 1 29.000 billion more than some analysts expected, Coca-Cola will use its distribution network to power the growth of Costa, which is chasing Starbucks, which is now the market leader in coffee chains with almost 77 stores in XNUMX countries.
In addition to coffee shops, Coca-Cola CEO James Quincy, who is also British, said Costa would be a major development platform ranging from bulk coffee to bottled beverages. Coca-Cola does not have a large global portfolio in this growing category, Quincy said.
Source: KYPE / APE-BPE / Reuters