in 1985, sergio bought out bruno's share of the company. bruno went on to found a tableware company.[6] by 1995, the chain had 41 stores in uk.[7] in 1995, the business was acquired by whitbread for £19m, uk's largest hotel and coffee shop operator, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary. in 2009, costa opened its 1,000th store - in cardiff. in december 2009, costa coffee agreed to acquire coffee heaven for £36 million, adding 79 stores in central and eastern europe.[8]