Costa Coffee Steps Up Bulgarian Presence

Facing increased competition next year, when the world's biggest coffeehouse chain Starbucks will enter Bulgaria, British rival Costa Coffee has announced on Tuesday plans to boost its presence in the country by opening ten new coffeehouses this year. The chain, which entered Bulgaria at the end of 2006, plans to invest EUR 1,5 M in 2008, the business manager of Coffee Life Ltd., the Bulgarian franchisee of Costa Coffee, Anguel Balabanov told business daily Pari.

At least six of the new shops will be in capital Sofia, with one apiece in Plovdiv and Stara Zagora malls, and one more in Varna.

The Varna location will also introduce a concept that has proved very popular in Europe and the US, for the first time in Bulgaria, combining the coffee house with an existing bookstore.

Costa Coffee already has seven coffee houses in the country after just one year on the market, and its plans include opening a total 50 new shops over the next five years.

Coffee outsells tea by far on the Bulgarian market and is an important social ritual in the country, but the market is highly fragmented. So far Costa Coffee and McCafe are the only foreign chains to have recently opened shops in Bulgaria.

Source: novinite.com

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