Costa Costa and Auchan Retail Romania plan to open ‘dozens’ of MyAuchan petrol station stores containing Costa Coffee self-serve concessions in a move that echoes the Coca-Cola-owned coffee chain’s self-serve strategy in the US market
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The first Costa Coffee coffee corner in partnership with Auchan Retail Romania was launched in Bucharest, Romania, in 2020
Costa Coffee has kicked off a new partnership with Auchan Retail Romania to install self-serve coffee machines at ‘dozens’ of MyAuchan petrol station stores set to open across Romania during 2021.
OMV Petrom and Auchan Retail Romania plan to open a chain of 400 MyAuchan stores across Romania over the next five years. Costa Coffee already operates 20 ‘coffee corners’ across Romania, but does not currently have a brick-and-mortar presence in the eastern European nation.
"We are happy to launch such a large project in Romania. Through the partnership with Auchan Romania, we want to bring Costa Coffee as close as possible to our consumers, in an accessible and uncompromising way, together with a reliable partner.” said Cristina Funieru, Coffee Business Development Manager at Coca-Cola HBC Romania.
Costa’s self-serve expansion strategy in Romania echoes its recent entrance into the US market through the
acquisition of the Briggo automated coffee machine brand in October 2020.
Costa Coffee already has significant expertise in the self-serve coffee machine segment. In 2011 it acquired the 900-unit Coffee Nation vending machine business for £59.5m ($77.3m), which it converted into its Costa Express brand and now operates a formidable global network of more than 9,000 sites across 32 markets.