Caffe Nero reports ‘very encouraging’ first half
The group attributed its strong holiday performance to its growth.
Caffe Nero Group reported a sales growth of 17% for the first half of the financial year from June 2023 to November 2023 period.
At the group level, the business revealed sales for the first half of the financial year of £265m, an increase of 10% in like-for-like sales.
In the UK, for the first half, Caffè Nero reported sales of £200m, representing a strong overall growth of 10.1%. Caffè Nero currently operates 1,057 outlets across 10 countries with 10,000 employees, serving over 150 million customers a year.
Caffè Nero’s airport business also continued to move forward, opening four sites during the period. The Group now operates 43 stores in 13 airports. Caffè Nero U.K. also reported strong trading during the key Christmas period. In November and December 2023, sales exceeded £60m; this was a 7% like-for-like sales increase compared to 2022.
The UK business achieved a record £8.4m in weekly sales during w/c 27th November and served more than 7.7 million U.K. customers during December. Despite facing challenging costs in the first half, driven by ongoing inflationary pressures, the Ford family-owned and run Caffè Nero Group opened 43 new stores, with 20 of those new stores in the UK and Ireland.
During the same first half of the financial year FY24 (June 2023 – Nov 2023), Caffè Nero UK experienced a notable and encouraging increase in several new sales channels.
The delivery business benefited from continuing strong partnerships with UberEats, Deliveroo and Just Eat, generating £4.7m of revenue, a 28% rise. Likewise, the Coffee at Home business (packaged coffee) for the same period achieved sales of £1.9m, an increase of 58%. The latter was assisted by a new strategic partnership with Morrison’s and continuing momentum from the brand’s channels and retail partnerships with Waitrose, Amazon, Ocado and the Ambassador Theatre Group.
“We’ve seen a very encouraging first half. Despite significant ongoing inflationary pressures that had a notable effect on our business, we have delivered solid sales growth and demonstrated strong cost control. This is a testament to the hard work and outstanding service from our store teams as well as a very well-received menu innovation in the U.K. including the Amaretto Latte in the autumn and a hugely successful Christmas menu. We expect to see sales continue to improve further over the coming weeks and months,” Caffè Nero Founder and Group CEO, Gerry Ford said.
