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As people sour on sugar water, Coke needs other beverages to sell.

Coca-Cola is buying British coffee chain Costa for $5.1 billion

[Photo: courtesy of Costa]

BY Michael Grothaus

The American soft drink maker is looking to expand its beverage offerings as people’s thirst for coffee continues unabated and people increasingly shun sugary drinks. Coke will pay £3.9 billion (about $5.1 billion) for Costa, which has 3,800 stores in 32 countries and is headquartered in the U.K., reports Bloomberg. This isn’t the first time Coke has flirted with coffee. Last year the company launched Coca-Cola Blak, a sugary soft drink flavored like coffee. That went over about as well as you would expect. But Coke isn’t the only sugar-water maker diversifying its offerings. Earlier this month, Pepsi paid $3.2 billion for SodaStream, a company that offers a product that allows users to make their own healthy fizzy drinks.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Grothaus is a novelist and author. He has written for Fast Company since 2013, where he's interviewed some of the tech industry’s most prominent leaders and writes about everything from Apple and artificial intelligence to the effects of technology on individuals and society. More


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