The polls are in and like every year we get to see a glimpse of how the UK coffee market is changing – all in the hope of a quality coffee filled future.
The first big take out is no surprise with more people than ever drinking coffee around the world let alone the UK. The UK spent £6.2 billion on coffee consumption out of home last year – up £202 million previous year. We may be traditionally Tea drinkers but this is over 4 times the spend on Tea in 2017.
Where do we rank?
Despite being ranked 12th for the amount of coffee consumption by country, our frequency of coffee intake is ahead of many countries including Spain and Portugal. We consume on average 82 cups of coffee a year, edging us dangerously closer to a mature coffee market with 70% market penetration.
What are we drinking?
Lattes remain a firm UK favourite with over 930 million sold the year from 25th February 2018. This was followed by Cappuccinos at 800 million and Americanos in 3rd place. Milk based coffees saw the biggest uplift +56% vs LY, with Flat Whites newly rising in the ranks at 4th place. Flat Whites in particular have been over recent years popularised among the younger crowds under 25 years old with wider availability across big players such as McDonalds despite the lack of coffee quality.
Where are we drinking?
The UK was home to over 7421 branded coffee shops in 2017 – up 643 shops the year before. This was the highest jump in shops in Europe with the big coffee chain Costa still holding pole position, but please take a second to see our views of Costa here. What’s more positive is this also includes an influx of independents and speciality coffee shops holding their own in the market such as ourselves…so all hope is not lost for quality coffee outlets.
What does this all mean?
So far so good people, but let’s keep our fingers crossed for the shit show (excuse my French) that is Brexit on the horizon.
