Costa Coffee says 1,650 jobs at risk due to Covid-19

(Sharecast News) - Costa Coffee said on Thursday that 1,650 jobs are at risk as it looks to cut costs amid uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The coffee chain, which closed nearly all of its 2,700 UK stores for six weeks during the pandemic, said that while trade is returning since it started reopening its stores in May, there remain "high levels of uncertainty" as to when it will recover to pre-Covid levels.

While it was closed, the company put all staff on the government's furlough scheme, topping up their salaries to 100% for 12 weeks. Costa also froze all pay increases within the support centre and all non-essential expenditure.

However, the changes haven't been enough and Costa said it now needs to take additional action, meaning that the jobs of more than 10% of its employees are at risk.

Neil Lake, managing director for Costa Coffee UK and Ireland, said: "Today's announcement to our store teams was an extremely difficult decision to make. Our baristas are the heart of the Costa business and I am truly sorry that many now face uncertainty following today's news.

"We have had to make these difficult decisions to protect the business and ensure we safeguard as many jobs as possible for our 16,000 team members, whilst emerging stronger ready for future growth."

Costa employs 16,000 people across 1,600 wholly-owned UK stores. There are also 1,100 Costa franchise stores across the UK employing 10,500.