New chain coffee shops are opening up at a rate of 10 a week as Britons turn to coffee to relieve their financial woes, new research shows.
By Myra Butterworth, Personal Finance Correspondent Can Opener
The boom in sales is much faster than analysts had forecast, with consumers refusing to forego their daily coffee despite the economic downturn.
Sales are set to reach £1.4 billion this year with the number of outlets rising to 3,461.
In the past year, there were 245 new Costa Coffee outlets, 160 Starbucks, 83 Caffe Neros and 78 new shops opened by smaller chains, according to research by Allegra Strategies.
Overall, 566 branded coffee shops were launched, increasing the total by 25 per cent to 2,804.
If sandwich chains such as Pret a Manger and Eat are included, the total rises by 657. This gives an overall total of 3,461.
Jeffrey Young, managing director at Allegra Strategies, said: “Even in the credit crunch, coffee is a treat consumers do not want to deprive themselves of.
“This is the first recession this industry has had to trade through.
“In the early Nineties people could only get a coffee in a greasy spoon. It’s difficult to imagine now. It’s like looking back and saying: ‘What did we do before computers?”