Customer wellbeing in Costa - sourcing

One example of how Costa strives to maximise the best of British sourcing and manufacturing traditions in its products is the cheese used in our sandwiches and paninis. The distinctively smooth and nutty taste of the Vintage Reserve Cheddar from Barbers farm in Somerset, comes from a recipe dating back to 1833 which involves artisan methods such as hand churning the milk and a minimum of two years maturation. The dairy cows are also reared to the highest standards of animal husbandry and welfare and sleep on specially designed mattresses to keep their udders firm! It is this attention to detail that helps guarantee consistent supply of high quality, tasting milk for our signature cheese.

All Costa’s poultry, pork and beef products are from British farms because we know our customers want to support British farmers and trust their quality and welfare standards. This is clearly labelled on all Costa packaging.

We constantly search for great tasting products and Costa recently moved its supply of strawberry and honey yoghurts to a family run business in the heart of Somerset which only uses British milk.

And whilst great tasting products are a must for customers, they have to go hand in hand with another top priority- calorie monitoring. This is a nationwide issue and in recognition of this, Costa has signed up to the Department of Health’s Responsibility Deal as a key partner in driving the adoption of individual health pledges.

Costa has listened to its customers to understand what they value most when it comes to watching their calorie intake. Their feedback highlighted the importance of labelling high calorific products like cakes compared to other products like drinks. During the research sales of high calorie labelled cakes dropped significantly. 

Costa customers can see nutritional information and calculate the calorific value of different food and drink choices available in our stores by using our on-line Costa Nutrition Calculator (external website).

As a result Costa got to work on reducing the highest level calories of its sweet, savoury and drinks products. It has developed and taste-tested with its customers a whole new range of calorie reduced products. They go on sale from May 2012 when Costa introduces calorie labelling across its food and drink menu boards in all UK stores.

It is an innovation based upon listening to what its customers want. We are committed to maintaining this approach as we develop our wider health strategy.

•      See the new 5 year Costa customer wellbeing targets