Costa Coffee, a British multinational, boasts the biggest chain of shops in the UK with more than 1000 coffee shops in the country and hundreds more worldwide and, on average, a new coffee shop opening in Britain everyday. Unlike Starbucks, it also pays its full share of taxes in the UK.
Costa Coffee won’t be opening a coffee shop in independent minded, free spirited Totnes in south Devon, England. This small town of around 10,000 residents doesn’ t take kindly to any multinational trying to set up shop in the town.
When we saw in the local council minutes that permission had been granted for the coffee chain to open a shop in the high street, shopkeepers and residents launched a campaign to keep Costa Coffee out of Totnes. More than 5700 signatures called on Costa to withdraw its planned move into Totnes.
Costa Coffee sent to Totnes one of their big guns , namely their managing director, a certain Mr Chris Rogers. Within a day or two, Costa Coffee issued a statement stating that the multi-national “recognised the strength of feelings in Totnes against national brands and had taken into account the specific circumstance of Totnes.
“Totnes is a town with a long and proud history of independent retailors and one of the lowest percentage of branded stores of any town of its size in the country.”
That’s the way we like it. I have lived in the same house in Totnes for 30 years, five minutes from the Barrel Coffee shop in the high street. Long may our independent coffee shops and teashops continue.
Costa Coffee CEO, Andy Harrison, wrote in a mission statement for the company: “I strongly believe that we should act as a force for good by supporting our communities and protecting our environment. “ Yes. Thank you – for staying away.
PS. I had to smile. The Totnes News carried a story the following week that someone had dumped a rocket-propelled mortar (RPM) in the skip at the Totnes Recycling Centre. A team of bomb disposal experts were called in. The thought arose in my mind. “Surely the person with the RPM wasn’t planning to use it if Costa had opened their coffee shop. Surely not – not in peace loving, transition town, free spirited, independent minded Totnes. Yes, the strength of feeling was high against opening a Costa shop. But not that high!