costa coffee was founded in london in 1971 by the costa family as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist italian coffee shops. acquired by whitbread in 1995 for £19m, it has since grown to over 3,277 stores across 31 countries. the business has 2,121 uk restaurants, over 6,000 costa express vending facilities and a further 1,280 outlets overseas (including 395 in china).[1][3]