It’s not uncommon to take coffee after a pizza, but the recent sale of Coffeepots Limited, the operator of 6 Costa Coffee outlets in Scotland, takes this to a whole new level. The company has recently been sold to CP Properties Limited, a company owned by two private investors who, until very recently, ran successful chains of Domino’s Pizza outlets.
The multi million pound deal was initiated, and full deal management services were provided to the Sellers, by the Corporate Finance division of accountancy and business advisory firm, Smith Cooper.
The Sellers, Dennis and Kathryn Evans, were early adopters of the Costa brand starting their business a decade ago. In subsequent years they developed 6 very high-performing stores, mainly located in shopping centres and retail parks rather than in traditional high street locations, employing around 85 staff. The stores, which are situated in the Glasgow area between Greenock in the West and Falkirk in the East, are exceptionally well run, repeatedly achieving the highest scores in the system for the regular Costa checks.
CP Properties Limited is owned by Colin Wilson and Pat Dunese, both of whom operated very successful Domino’s franchises in the Glasgow area until their recent sale. CP Properties, which has been able to neatly switch its senior management team from operating Domino’s to running the newly acquired Costa business, plans to continue growing the business and the Costa brand in Scotland.
David Crump and John Farnsworth of Smith Cooper acted as lead deal advisers. Smith Cooper operates from 7 offices and employs 180 staff. The Corporate Finance division ranks in the top 10 in the Midlands and has a number specialisms, including franchise where it dominates the UK fast food and drinks sector. Head of Corporate Finance, John Farnsworth, commented: “David and I are delighted to have secured an exit for Kathryn and Dennis which properly reflects the quality of the business which they worked hard to build up to class-leading standards”. David Crump added “the buyers’ intention to maintain the high standards and develop the brand is backed by two very successful track records in the Domino’s brand – which bodes well for staff, the business and the Costa brand”.
Commenting on the deal, Kathryn and Dennis said “We have great admiration for the team at Smith Cooper Corporate Finance who are experts in their field. We could not have achieved the deal we did without them on our team. John and David worked tirelessly on our behalf and we appreciate the fact that without their guidance, knowledge and relentless, dogged determination to get the deal done we could not have achieved our goal. They were professional, dedicated to our cause and just good fun to work with. We have no hesitation in recommending their services.”
Costa Coffee is a global business operating in around 30 countries and is owned by Whitbread PLC. It dominates the UK coffee shop market with over 2000 stores, about 41% of which are franchised, and operates around 4700 Costa Express machines. Whitbread operates in 30 countries and plans to grow worldwide store numbers by 200 in 2016, targeting £2.5bn of global sales by 2020.