M&S to provide sandwiches and hot food for Costa Coffee
Marks & Spencer will supply sandwiches and hot food to over 2,500 Costa Coffee locations as the retailer looks for new ways to connect with commuters who are now working from home.
M&S announced that it would supply Costa with over 30 different items, including children’s food, hot meal boxes, and salads, as part of the collaboration with the UK’s largest coffee shop chain.
The retailer stated that the partnership with the coffee shop, which was acquired by Coca-Cola in 2018, would enable it to expand its presence in neighbourhoods, drive-thru windows, high streets, and retail parks.
The deal is M&S’s latest attempt to diversify its food distribution, following its acquisition of a stake in Ocado’s retail arm and subsequent replacement of Waitrose as the online grocery specialist’s primary partner. M&S began selling groceries online for home delivery for the first time just over a year ago as a result of the deal with Ocado.
M&S also trialled its Simply Food convenience store concept in WH Smith stores and supplied food for some British Airways flights for approximately three years, ending in 2020.
Meanwhile, M&S has redesigned its stores and products to appeal to families, enabling the group to post a pre-tax profit in the six months to October, following a nearly £88 million loss in the same period last year.
The strong performance was fueled by a 10% increase in food sales and “significant improvement” in the company’s once-struggling clothing and homewares division.
