Opinion: Coca-Cola to Buy Costa Coffee, the Implications For the Licensing IndustryOpinion: Coca-Cola to Buy Costa Coffee, the Implications For the Licensing Industry

With Coca-Cola’s announcement of its offer to buy U.K. coffee chain Costa Coffee for $5.1 billion, Coca-Cola is making a strategic bet that it can give Starbucks a run for its money. Costa Coffee is a premium coffee retail chain based in the U.K. and doing business in 32 countries globally with 4,000 locations. In the U.K., Costa is the most popular of the premium coffee houses.

From a licensing perspective, this deal is interesting given the recent Starbucks-Nestle licensing deal, where Nestle paid Starbucks $7.15 billion for the perpetual licensing rights to sell Starbucks products, such as Starbucks, Seattle's Best Coffee and Teavana outside of the U.S. company’s coffee shops.

The food and beverage category for licensing is heating up as brands fight for shelf space and consumers look for premium, recognized brands on shelves. At this year’s Brand Licensing Europe Oct. 9-11 in London https://www.brandlicensing.eu/, the food and beverage category takes center stage as this year’s theme. Be sure to register today.

According to a study by MBASkool.com, here is a list of the Top 10 Coffee Chain Brands in 2017:

1st place: Starbucks

2nd place: Costa Coffee

3rd place: Tim Horton’s

4th place: Lavazza

5th place: Mc Café

6th place: Gloria Jeans

7th place: Caribou Coffee

8th place: Dunkin Donuts

9th place: Coffee Beanery

10th place: Tully's Coffee