Coffee shop kings: Brits prefer Greggs to Starbucks
Greggs' transformation from bakery to coffee shop is working wonders: a new survey shows that Britons prefer Greggs to Caffè Nero, Costa and Starbucks
11:54AM GMT 22 Mar 2015
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Starbucks might be the king of coffee shops, and Costa might wear the crown in the UK, but it turns out British people are more partial to a hot beverage from Greggs.
The bakery chain scored highest for value in a national poll of 4,500 people, ranking second on friendliness of staff, speed of service and store cleanliness.
Overall, Greggs performed better than Caffè Nero, Costa and Starbucks, bested only by Pret A Manger, according to the Market Force Information survey, which asked consumers about their satisfaction in eight categories at a range of coffee shops and whether they would recommend the brands to others.
Better known for its pasties and sausage rolls - and its social media savvy - Greggs is currently in the midst of a makeover that will see it move towards in-store seating, healthy sandwiches and better coffee.
The transformation seems to be working: the Newcastle-based retailer’s like-for-like sales at its own stores, excluding franchises, grew 4.5pc in 2014 compared to a 0.8pc decline the year before.
In its annual results, Greggs said that four out of five consumers judged its new coffee blend to be as good as or better than their favourite coffee brand in a blind taste test.
The company said the black beverage was its fastest growing product category in the year, with coffee sales in the run up to Christmas hitting a record high £1m per week.
Despite having among the lowest coffee consumption per capita in Europe,the UK is swiftly turning from a nation of tea drinkers and pub dwellers into coffeeshop socialisers.
“The coffee shop market has grown at about 5pc per annum throughout the recession even in the most economically challenged parts of the UK,” Andy Harrison, chief executive of Costa-owner Whitbread, has previously told the Telegraph.
The Market Force Information survey found that consumers were more likely to have visited a coffee shop more than 10 times in the last three months than any other number of visits, with around a fifth of respondents saying they had frequented a cafe this often.
By contrast, people were most likely to have eaten at a restaurant just once or twice in the last 90 days and gone to a pub two or three times.
Even JD Wetherspoon wants a piece of the coffee cake: the pub chain recently unveiled plans to triple coffee and breakfast sales over the next 18 months in the face of high pub taxes and said it already sells more coffees - around 50m each year - than Caffè Nero or Pret a Manger.
