Costa coffee chain gives Whitbread sales lift

The squeeze on consumer spending is failing to deter coffee lovers after the owner of Costa today reported a surge in half-year sales.

The Whitbread-owned coffee chain, which has 1,295 stores in the UK and 1,986 worldwide, saw like-for-like sales growth of 6.6% in the 24 weeks to August 18 and a 25% lift in sales including new store openings.