Beverage giant Coca-Cola is rumoured to be in talks to sell coffee chain Costa Coffee.
The multinational, which owns big-name brands including Sprite, Fanta, Powerade, Dasani, and of course Coca-Cola, is reportedly working with investment bank Lazard to review its options.
And things appear to be moving at a pace, with Sky News which first broke the story, saying initial discussions have already taken place with a number of potential bidders, including private equity firms.
Indicative offers are said to be due in the early part of the autumn, with a Sky source suggesting Coca-Cola may set the price at just £2bn (€2.3bn), which would represent a sizeable loss.
Coca-Cola and Costa Coffee relationship
Coca-Cola completed the £3.9bn purchase of Costa Coffee back in January 2019. But the relationship failed to meet expectations, with Coca-Cola chief executive James Quincey announcing in July that Costa had “not quite delivered” and was “not where we wanted it to be from an investment hypothesis point of view”.
Costa Coffee operates over 2,000 stores in the UK, and over 3,000 globally.
It is reported to have a global workforce of around 35,000.
Coca-Cola has yet to respond to a request for comment on the matter.
