Caffè Nero brews record sales success
The group behind coffee house Caffè Nero has revealed a sharp increase in sales for the first half of its current financial year.
The Nero Group has posted sales of £310m for the six months to the end of November 2024, a new record.
The total represents an eight per cent like-for-like rise and 13.6 per cent overall.
In the UK, Caffè Nero’s sales totalled £185.4m for the period, up 11.4 per cent, while sales in Turkey rose by 12 per cent and by nine per cent in Sweden.
The Nero Group currently operates around 1,120 stores across 11 countries with 11,000 employees. There are also 626 Caffè Nero locations in the UK.
The first-half results come ahead of Caffè Nero publishing its full-year results with Companies House by the end of the month.
For the prior financial year, Caffè Nero posted a revenue of £450.4m and a pre-tax profit of £7.3m. It also created more than 1,000 jobs.
The latest figures for the chain come after CityAM reported in October 2024 that rival Costa Coffee fell into the red despite its revenue rising by more than £100m in 2023.
The Buckinghamshire-headquartered business, which is owned by Coca-Cola, reported a pre-tax loss of £9.6m for that financial year. The loss came after the firm posted a pre-tax profit of £245.9m in 2022.
Caffè Nero was established in 1997 by Gerry Ford and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2001 before being taken private in 2007.
Ford, who serves as the company’s chief executive, said: “The first half was very encouraging.
“Our success is a reflection of the hard work and outstanding service from our store teams and the real momentum we’ve built through menu innovation.
“I was particularly encouraged by our cinnamon bun, which sold over quarter of a million units after its launch in Q2, and the famous maritozzi bun, which took the country by storm and sold close to half a million units in the first half of the year.
“We have delivered record sales at both group and UK level, and it leaves us well placed to have a
strong full year, despite significant financial costs and challenges which the business will have to
overcome in the coming months.”